Method for obtaining up to 12 Keiki's per mother plant without causing her stress.

[KultureShock]

Originally Posted by Call_Me_Bob

I thought the coconut water didn't come until once they actually show growth

sorry your right it doesnt matter up until then but you can add it before if you'd like whichever is easiest really

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by KultureShock

sorry your right it doesnt matter up until then but you can add it before if you'd like whichever is easiest really

gotcha! sounds good!!

[Mothlives]

Ok so if I understand this correctly I buy 2 chemicals and apply it to the cut flower stem and if everything goes well I will have flowering orchids in about 7 years? Also buying keiki paste and applying it to the flower stem while it is attached to the mother plant is not a good idea as it causes stress to the mother plant and could potentially kill it?

Caroline

[KultureShock]

Originally Posted by Mothlives

Ok so if I understand this correctly I buy 2 chemicals and apply it to the cut flower stem and if everything goes well I will have flowering orchids in about 7 years? Also buying keiki paste and applying it to the flower stem while it is attached to the mother plant is not a good idea as it causes stress to the mother plant and could potentially kill it?

Caroline

I never said the chemicals were mandatory in fact i posted a link to a pictorial using this method but without the hormones for those that wanted to try it that way...
The hormones just raise the success rate, and i dont understand where you got the seven years from i suppose it could take that long but usually only a couple years. As for it being hard on the mother plant, i thought this was pretty much common knowledge that if a plant was unhealthy to begin with and you force it to start growing a keiki instead of focusing on growing roots and the things it needs to get back to good health that it is not going to do very well. If you had a perfectly healthy plant the odds of keiki paste harming it are practically non existent unless by some chance the particular strain of orchid in question is hypersensitive to the hormones but even then a healthy plant should cope.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by Mothlives

Ok so if I understand this correctly I buy 2 chemicals and apply it to the cut flower stem and if everything goes well I will have flowering orchids in about 7 years? Also buying keiki paste and applying it to the flower stem while it is attached to the mother plant is not a good idea as it causes stress to the mother plant and could potentially kill it?

Caroline

If you have a healthy plant there is nothing wrong with adding keiki paste to the stem while attached to the plant, in fact if a keiki forms, it would grow fast if its still attached. I wouldn't recommend doing that to more than a few nodes though, if the spike is still attached. Cutting the spike allows you to get more keikis without casuing added stress to the plant by making it procude 12+ keikis.

[Mothlives]

I was asking because I am very new to orchid and I thought this sounded like an interesting experiment to try when my Phal finished blooming. I didn't catch that you don't need to use chemicals, though I would prefer to use what you recommended because I am sure I will need all the help I can get. Some of the books I have been reading stated that a keiki was formed when the mother plant was sick and it was trying to save itself. From that I inferred that perhaps keiki paste wasnt the way to go if I wanted to propogate an orchid. The comment about it taking seven years to flower was just from what I had been reading about raising orchids from a flask to flower. I am sorry if I wasn't clear in my last post.

Caroline

[Stray59]

Mothlives;
Welcome to the Orchid Board!!
What you read is correct; in some cases, if a mother plant is dying it will throw either a kieki or one last bloom / spike. I think this is just an evolutionary thing myself - a dying attempt to continue the species. But this cannot be counted on.
Sometimes a plant throws a kieki because it is so happy and healthy it can; and sometimes a plant has a genetic predisposition for forming kiekis no matter what.
If you use kieki paste, you can induce formation more reliably. A healthy mother plant will carry a kieki with little stress; I have seen a plant naturally form and carry two kiekis, and three is not unheard of, but more than one is an overload unless you have a VERY vigorous and healthy plant.
But, if you should want to develop kiekis and you want to get the "biggest bang for your buck" without ANY stress to the mother plant the above method sounds just perfect. Kiekis form quicker and mature in a couple of years in contrast to seedlings which DO take several years to mature.
Since most stems are just thrown out, this is sort of a "Can't Lose" situation.
I hope this helps clear up some of your questions about kiekis.
Have a great New Year!!
Steve

[Mothlives]

Thanks that does clear things up for me Steve.

Caroline

[Call_Me_Bob]

How long did it take for you to see growth? I am not seeing any with mine

[Wild Orchid]

Originally Posted by Call_Me_Bob

How long did it take for you to see growth? I am not seeing any with mine

Here are earlier discussions on the subject.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...iki-paste.html

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...iki-paste.html

Kiki paste

keiki paste - Temps required

Keiki-Pro Observations

keiki pro

There are more, of course. You can just go through Search and use key words ("keki paste").

Lilia