Controlling Growth Direction

[Gold3nku5h]

Well i've since gotten alot into orchids, and love to pot them up in vertically mounted pots, or mount them on some type of wood. I was wondering, how can i control the direction of the kieki's and get them to grow in the direction i want them to, besides pinning them down?

I've read one where it says to pinch off the new growth but im not sure that works.

I would also like to know how to get the plants to branch off, somewhat like topping a plant so instead of one growth point, you get two.

Is this possible with orchids or am i dreaming like a fool?

Thanks, Aaron.

[Ray]

Orchids ain't like other plants.

Don't ever "pinch off" the growth tip. All that does is stall the plant, and make it expend excess energy to start to regrow elsewhere.

If you pinch off the top of a monopodial orchid, you will likely get a single, basal keiki (in the case of a phal), or one forming along the "stem" of a plant like a vanda. The plant you pinched will simply sit there are become a great site for an infection.

If you pinch off the rhizome of a sympodial orchid, you will have cut off the chance of it continuing to grow at all, and must rely on the reactivation of dormant "eyes" on the other pseudobulbs. The best way to get a sympodial plant to "branch" and have multiple growth fronts is to grow it well and let it mature.

If you are referring to pinching off flower spikes, at best the plant will stall, then send out a single branch with potentially fewer and smaller flowers, or more likely, you will not get any flowers at all.

I'm guessing you're referring to new growths coming from sympodials as "keikis", which is incorrect. Such plants enlarge the size of the "colony" by putting out new growths connected by a rhizome. A keiki is an adventitious growth, typically on a flower spike. There really is little you can do to control rhizome growth direction, but having the plant face the light helps keep it compact.

[Gold3nku5h]

Well shoot, thats not what i wanted to hear. So a keiki is a growth that comes off a flower spike? The only situation i've seen this happen is with a succulet that put off another little pup on the stem on a flower of its mother. I guess thats the same basic happening?

Well i guess its back to just bending the rhizome on the ones that are father away.

I've been wanting to start fertilizing them, but havn't yet. I think im going to buy a dyna-gro set of ferts.

I guess another thing to ask, If i litterally PINCH the rhizhome, so that its not broken, but the cells within it have been crushed, shouldn't it still supply the ones down the line, while activating the ones previous to the pinch to start growing to? I've done this a few times, and i dont think it's been enough time, but with other plant, always sends out new growth behind it.