Cute little bugger!

[chidfix]

This is my keiki. My neighbor choked out her Phal by neglect by the time I got my hands on it it was too late and this keiki is all that remains on a dried up old spike from the dead plant. It appears to have two healthy roots on it and I have been waiting for a third since I aquired it about 2 months ago, but there hasn't been much if any growth in that time. Should I remove it from the old spike? I mist it a few times a week, and I'm wondereing if thats enough or to much or??????? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

[Phal Gal]

Chidfix, did you attach a pic? I don't see one anywhere!Oops! There it is!

[kmarch]

I can see mild signs of deydration on your keiki. It's not getting enough moisture/nourishment. Misting it a few times a week isn't' anywhere near enough moisture for it. If you want to grow it with it's roots exposed like this (which I wouldn't recommend) you'd probably need to mist it a few times a day (!!!). The stem its growing off of looks dead. I'd recommend removing it, potting it up or mounting it properly and giving it good phalaenopsis culture.

Read the phal culture sheets here on this forum or at www.aos.org. Once you've read them let us know if you have questions.

[Phal Gal]

OK! Let's try this again! I think I would try "sphag n bag"! If I understand the concept correctly, you put moistened sphag aroung the roots and wrap that all in a plastic bag(roots & sphag ONLY!) This is to encourage more root growth so you can pot your keiki up with best results! Senior Geeks, correct me PLEASE if I am wrong!!

[sunshine]

I would just pot it in the smallest pot you can find and just use sphag. When watering the sphag don't get water in the crown or you will get crown rot. I just sent a few of my small phals that were in sphag to orchid heaven due to crown rot.

[janet_a]

agreed; i'd just pot it up in sphag in a 2 inch pot and keep the sphag moist but not wet and with good air movement and see how it does. in an ideal world you'd want a collective 4 inches of roots on the plant before it came off the stem, but since the stem's dead i'd just pot it up now.

[cable]

Yeah, I agree: the old flower stem isn't doing anything for it, so I'd just pot it with the roots in sphag, then keep the moss slightly moist.

[chidfix]

Just a little updated on my little rescue project. Thanks to the good advice I recieved here I separated this little guy from its dead mother with only two roots, potted it up in some spag in a 2" pot and since it has shot up two new leaves. I haven't removed it from the pot to inspect the roots but I'm thinkin its pretty happy in its new home. I will keep you posted! thanks again!

[Emma Grey]

It looks great!

[Daethen]

Congrats! Looks like you are doing wonderful with it.

[Fishmom]

Good growing! That looks like a really healthy young plant.

[katrina]

It certainly does look happy! Good growing!!