Keiki Question
 

There have recently been several posts about keiki paste and the like. This is another question about how and not when to set this little guy on its own. As you can see the roots are growing nicely and soon when they get about twice as long it will be time to part ways with mom. And that is the question....just how would you guys and gals go about parting ways. There are two more keikis growing distal to this and another more proximal. The distal ones are very small and nowhere near ready.... So the bigger one...How would you remove it? Would just cutting the spike and potting up and take the distal contributions along for the ride and hope they survive, leaving the proximal one to grow some roots???? Or would you try to take a sharp blade and sever this larger one "off" of the spike?????

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Oh Doc, looks like you have a handful of little ones, while I have no answer to your questions I do share your concerns, one of my phals is naturally growing a keiki, and I too will have to face removing it, if you don't mind I'd like to ask...what to pot it in?

I was thinking sphag and very fine bark... yes, no, maybe? :scratchhead:

And what about fertilizing, when should I start?

I'm not sure I can help you since I've never seen such a mass of keikis! I'd be afraid of killing the middle one if yu cut off the biggest. Maybe the best thing to do would be to take them together since they seem pretty well connected, unlike the one on the left, which seems fairly separate from them.
But I'm just guessing, I have no clue what I would do if that were mine!

At first I potted my keiki in fine bark, but was getting some rot issues. I repotted in medium bark and kept it on the dry side a few weeks. My reasoning is that the keikis roots (when growing on the mother) are not tailored to growing in a medium, which has more moisture. Basically they are all aerial roots. By giving a nice airy medium and going easy on the water, the roots stopped rotting and put out some nice green tips, and brand new roots too.

As for fertilizing, I waited about a 3 weeks before starting. I don't know if that's too long or not enough, but the keiki did well! I was forced to started fertilizing since the keiki started a spike. Didn't want it to starve while keiki was growing it!

Thank you very much Camille :D

Mine is not as far along as Doc's but it was a matter of time before I started a new thread on this. :)

Agree with Camille....that is what I've done with keikis in the past. Once I tried to wrap sphag aroung a rooting keiki while still on the spike and then place plastic wrap around that to maintain moisture but the roots stopped growing!.... Now I just wait until I have 3" long roots and go directly into medium bark/CHC

Ummm Howard, It looks like you've got decisions to make...but good ones, not bad. :)

I am not a keiki expert when it comes to stem props, but I would suggest just waiting for the distal keikis to grow large enough for separation before releasing the larger one from the mother. I don't believe there are any rules that state a keiki must be removed when it reaches a certain size. Doing it this way will increase your chances of having more baby plants grow successfully, at least in my thinking it does. :) :scratchhead:

Please keep us updated on your plant's progress. It is fascinating.

I'm not an expert...But, I would also do what David suggests ..... which is basically wait as long as possible... - At the same time I also think that Camille has also got a point ....
Good Luck !!whatever you decide to do...
I'm sure you'll end up 'growing' them !!! ...keep us posted!

I would leave them together on the spike until the roots become longer, say 3-4 inches long. Then I would cut off, dust with a little rooting hormone then pot up with a seedling mix. When they get established and grow larger you could divide again into another plant. Thats what I did when I had a three keikis on the same orchid, where two were growing in the same location. Mine are gowing just fine and perhaps next spring I will divide the two keikis that are together into two plants.

Howard;
Ihad 2 keikis that I waited for 3-4" roots before removing tfom the mother plant.Not being sure of how they would do I potted one in fine fir bark and the other in a 50/50 mix of fir bark and sphag.
They both have grown nicely,but the one in the 50/50 mix has a 4" flower spike already.
Ed b