Hi newbie from UK. need help.

[anyeone410s]

Hi everybody. I have a dendrobium,single stem I bought for £1 in a clearence sale about 3 months ago (at that price nothing much lost). It now has two keiki's, now about 5 inches long, one with 2 flowers and 1 with one flower. the roots are about 2 inches long. my question is. How do I take them off to pot up.

[kid a]

look for a natural breaking point or a point at which it would be easily removable. Making sure not to damage the keikis. Some of them will come off with a slight pull others will require a blade to be removed. There are several threads bout removing keikis and potting them on orchid geeks. Some of the recent ones have good pictures too. If you go to the top of the page and go to search you look them up for reference to see what others have done and some of the other tips. Welcome to orchid geeks!!!

[Rocinante]

Welcome anyeone410! I have quite a few Dens 'cause I love 'em, but I don't purport myself to be an expert. That said, if your Den is flowering and you disturb it, the buds will likely blast (die). As far as the roots on the keikis go, I would wait until they grow just another inch or two longer before separating them for re-potting. It cant hurt to be patient. I'm waiting on a cane-top keiki myself. When you do separate them, a sharp (sterilized by flame) Exacto knife, a pair of pruning snips or Bonsai scissors will cut them off quite nicely. Some people pinch them off by hand, but having the right tool for the hobby is always the best way to go.

[11Orchid126]

As John, (Rocinante) says, it won't hurt to let the mother plant take care of them until they are strong enough to be on their own.

[anyeone410s]

Thanks for quick replies. I will wait for the flowers to die off.