Phal Keiki questions

[Mystia]

About 6 years ago, my father-inlaw died. It was a sad time for us all, however
in one of the funeral baskets that my husband and i were given, there was a Orchid. I had really never heard of Orchids befor, but it was white and flowering, and very pretty. Now i am not really good with flowering plants, but my Aunt assured me they were easy to grow, and take care of. My love of orchids began. 6 Years later the Orchid ( I named him George) Is still alive and thriving, he also has quite a few friends. I began thinking that i could produce a keiki for my sister-inlaw so that she could have a peice of George too. However upon reading that Phals dont really produce keikis unless they are dieing, or with the help of Kei-Grow paste, i set out to get some Kei-Grow Paste.

1st Experiment was done on a Phal, named Mardy. ( shes almost as old as George and the second Orchid i have owned ) I waited untill the last flower had dropped and applied the keiki paste to a nice little node. After months, all i got was a small malformed thing, that i could not tell if it was another shoot, or a keiki. I waited until the stalk went yellow, befor i cut it back.

2nd Experiment was done on a Mini Phal, named Baby. Well this was quite a surprise, i ended up with 2 Keikis. The bottom one is the largest, with opened leaves, but the top one never really amounted to anything. I left both. Then something happened, the stalk started to go yellow, and brown. I panicked and cut the top keiki off, trying to save the bottom keiki. However the stalk is now yellowing all the way to the bottom. I am afraid that the keiki may die. Baby has a healthy root system, and I began to use the Shultz Fertalizer about Once every 2 weeks, when i first noticed the keikis. The Keiki has no root system yet, and i am not sure what to do, or where i went wrong.

I want to get 1 healthy Keiki befor i begin trying to get George to have a Keiki, so i know what i am doing, and am able to not go into this blind.

So my questions are:
Where did i go wrong?
Is there anyway to save the keiki?
Is there a way to get a Phal to produce a keiki on there own?
Is there a good how to guide, in here once i get another Healthy keiki?


Any Help will be appreciated.

[koshki]

Mystia, I'm not sure how to deliberately get a keiki, but I think it's a nice thought and will look forward to learning along with you.

And welcome to Orchid Geeks! I'm giving this a bump to make sure others see this as well!

[Emma Grey]

Just so you know, a few healthy phals do produce keikis. I have a healthy plant right now that is working on one.

I'm not sure how to get a plant to deliberately produce a keiki though. I'll be interested to see how other people respond.

[phalaephila]

In my experience, some phals are genetically programmed to produce keikis, and some are not. It is not easy to get one to grow on a plant that would not normally grow keikis. This may happen on plants that are stressed, but we don't want to treat our plants that way, or at least I wouldn't!

Phals that produce keikis in my collection all have Phalaenopsis equestris somewhere in their background. I used to grow a Phalaenopsis pallens that threw a keiki on every spike. Phal. Kuntrarti Rarashati 'Copperstate' does this for me as well. Other hybrids that will do this include Phal. Fantasy Musick and Phal. Millie's Lemon Berry.

Hope this helps!

[NewGrower]

My friend just gave me a phal (that wasnt in "ideal" care) and it has.... 4 keikis on 2 spikes and then a basal keiki! It was very stressed I am sure so that is why it has produced some.... hopefully they still continue to grow now that the plant is getting better care!
Good luck! If you have a keiki with no roots on a dead stem would it help to put it in a baggie for some humidity? Idk, just a thought!

[ChampagneOrchid]

Hey Everyone... Newbie here.

Saw this post and it reminded me that I saw a video on this on youtube... it's in spanish though.

I can't post a link yet, but search for 'Cuidado de Orquideas. Como Obtener Keikis de Phalaenopsis'


At work right now so I can't translate, but I can try to give it a shot later.

[bearded orchid]

An interesting experiment you can do with George is to cut off the flower spike at its base while still in bloom and place the spike in a vase with some water and perhaps some KLN or Superthrive and enjoy the blooms for a time. When the flowers wilt, keep the spike in the vase and maintain water and light conditions. You may trick the spike into spurting out a keiki from of the nodes along the stem

[Mira-Claude]

My roommate manage a pretty impressive amount of keikis a few years back with phal. Sogo Gotris. The mother was thriving and feeding seven keikis all at once produce with the help of a keiki paste.
It was pretty impressive!
Sadly enough the plant died of a heat stroke.
Yet we've made research after the experiment and learned these two things; 1) the paste applied must be sterile and the spike green and clean. 2) If you want keikis to produce roots faster wrap sphag around their base. Not at all easy with seven on the same the nodule but hey!
I also saw somewhere that if a plant could not provide for the keikis she might willingly abort them by killing her spike.
Better luck next time!

[koshki]

A couple weeks ago, I thought I'd try to start a keiki on a bare, but green phal spike. I pulled back ever-so-slightly the sheath covering a node on the spike. Yesterday, while watering I noticed that a small growth has started. Sadly, along with the growth I found a mealy bug.

I hate bugs on my orchids! *Don't we have a POd emoticon*

I took care of it...hopefully the mealy bug didn't take care of whatever was growing.

[Mystia]

Thanks for the Advice all. It is much apprectiated, I am still learning alot about Orchids, and different types.

George is big. I will post pics as soon as i get my 5 posts in.

I think Baby is aborting her keikis, but i am not sure why, she has a healthy root base. If the keiki looks like its drooping, i am going to wrap her in a bit of moss, and try to keep her alive.

It took me months to figure out how to clone an Orchid, by using keiki paste. I did accidently break off a flower stalk once, and i put it in water to finish blooming. I never thought about trying keiki paste on it tho after it finished.

I have rescued orchids from a florist tho. They had Mealy buggs. They are still in quarintine at the moment. Worst infestation i have ever seen as the little buggers made there nests in the roots. I may loose some that i rescued, i hope not tho. I use End All 2, for Mealys, and various other bugs, its very good stuff and safe to use on most house plants.

One of the kinds i rescued is a Dendribum - Phal, boy theres lots of keikis on that one right now. But most of my orchids are true Phals, not sure of the sub species and weather or not it would make a difference. I will tell you all that, the Mini Phal Baby, that has the keiki, i had bought one for my sister - in law, and hers now has a keiki after applying keiki paste. So yes, some would be more prone to the keiki paste than others, or perhaps its a matter of timing.

I found a link in here about lotte and Thomas, very interesting and worth a shot if i cant get the keiki paste to produce a keiki, sadly none of my Phals are in bloom at the moment. But i can wait.........

Once you get the keiki, using keiki paste, what next? How long does it take to for the keiki to start growing roots? ( once thers roots, i can breath a bit, knowing it soon will be self sustaining ) or does everyting boil down to the sub species?

I noticed, that it was a big Node i applied the keiki paste to, and it didnt take long for it to show. Frankly i forgot about keiki pasting, and 3 weeks later i noticed 2 keikis hidden behind her leaves. The keiki is about 6 weeks now, and an inch and a half long.

Ok, off to watch a youtube video.

[Mystia]

ok, I watched the video, and would be interested in understanding what the mixes were, how much, and what they applied to make the keikis grow.

When i read the post at lotte and thomas, it does not list why you have to heat the mix up in the microwave, or for how long. but the concept i found in both, is that there is a way to grown keikis in a mix by cutting off the flower stem.

Also i learned, i should have stayed in school, and paid more attention to spanish. lol.

[ArtGeekMark]

Yeah, Phals don't necessarily have to be dying to produce a keiki in fact sometimes it's a sign one is doing incredibly well. When a phal produces a terminal spike out of the crown of the plant however, it can signal the eventual death of the plant and will possibly throw some keikis then - so I've read online a few places including this forum. Keep us posted on the paste? Good luck n' happy growin'!

[Mystia]

Yes, i have read that aswell, also some breeds do produce more keikis than others aswell, or so i have read.

Mine seem to be happy, they bloom constantly, have healthy roots. However it could also have something to do with tempatures, I live in Canada so we have cold, cold, winters, and hot, hot summers. Very little of a spring, or fall. Its either to cold, or to hot here. ( currently hot, very hot summer ). The Phals not in quarintene are in the bathroom, lots of humidity in there. I have tried them in other windows faceing the same way and they dont seem to like it as much.

Also I was wondering if there was a Phal keiki care guide, I am going to try to find some more books at the library to give me more of a general idea of how to care for one. Or buy another Phal with a stem so i can try again. I will keep a record of this, things i did, how many times i watered, fertalized and such. When i first found the keiki i was shocked, It didnt take very long for the keiki to form and get big at all. ( Keikis seem to grow faster then there parents ) The stalk is almost white now on Baby. The keiki seems healthy still, but i am pretty sure that the white on the stalk means that soon the keiki wont get anything from the mom. The mom plant ( Baby ) Is very healthy, good root base, however i noticed she is shooting of some new air roots, if i am lucky she may give me a flower stem to try again with by fall.

[Mystia]

---------------------UpDate----------------------------------------------

Well, mom didnt really abort after all. Half the stalk went white, the other half is still green.


At the base of this plant, it looks like a basal keiki is forming, however it could be another flower spike, its really to soon to tell. Ill post again as it gets bigger.

So far the mom plant is being fertalized Once per month. I am using Shultz fertalizer. Watering is every 10 - 14 days. I have seen 1 new leaf since the mom aborted the flower spike. Its a little one, but a little one is better than nothing, so the keiki is still growing. No roots so far, but i am hopefull.