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This is a phal type dend I got just after Xmas. It has 2 spikes coming into flower, and I presume this ? keiki. As you can see it's got some nice roots coming, but is firmly attatched to the main cane. Now question is, do I leave it alone, or how and when do I separate it?
Advice please!
Whenever my keikis form at the base of the 'chid, I leave them alone. If it's growing further up on the cane and the roots are between 2 and 3 inches long, I remove it and start another plant to give to a friend.
__________________
Susanne B
"It is difficult to give away kindness.
It keeps coming back to you"
~~ Cort Flint
Leave your egos at the door...
I also leave mine that grow along the base. When they grow up I have either trimmed the part of the plant it is on or just taken the keiki off and then planted. They grow well.
[font="Courier New"]Do nothing and you will be awarded with flowers, possibly this C-mas. I do not think this is a keiki, from your pictures, but rather a new cane forming.[/FON T]
Orchids like this dendrobium have a 'sympodial' growth habit ... that is a lateral growth pattern. New shoots, canes or pseudobulbs arise from or next to previous years growth. Cattleya and Cymbidium also exhibit sympodial growth. The opposite is monopodial growth as in phalaenopsis and vanda.
PS, most sympodial plants bloom on new growth, compared to monopodial that blooms on the same growth repeatedly.
Keikis (which usually grow well above the base of a pseudobulb or cane) can be removed when the root structure is sufficient to support the plant.
As long as the old canes are alive, their roots are supporting the entire plant. I would separate the new growth from the old only if the newer growth is jeopardized by the old.
Dend. keiki?
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