New growth on cattleya

[sii]

Hello All,

I have this new growth on my dendrobium (I think that's what it is) I should probably remove it. Should I place it in the same pot? Or another one?

P.s. I don't know why the photo is flipped. It looks fine on my desktop???

[Roberta]

It a Dendrobium (not a Cattleya). That's a "keiki" - Hawaiian for "baby" It has nice long roots, so could be removed and potted up as a separate plant, but there is no necessity for that. Attached keikis can bloom, so if you leave them on the plant you get a more impressive display. I would rather have a large robust plant than several small weak ones, but that's me... if you want to share with a friend, keikis are great for that.

[Bombotany]

Nice keiki! It's pretty well established -- the rule of thumb is to wait until they have several leaves and several 1"+ roots before removing. Roberta makes a good point that there's technically no reason to remove it. Personally, I'll never leave a keiki on when I can start a whole new plant with it. I also don't like the untidy look of roots growing halfway up a cane. Eventually, if given its own pot, that keiki will grow new rhizome and new canes. Given a few years, you've got yourself a full size clone. Start with a sphag heavy potting mix, as little baby root systems suck at drawing up water from coarse bark.

[aliceinwl]

With roots that long, mine have never missed a beat when I put them straight into bark. Sometimes I pot them up separately, sometimes I just throw them in with the parent when I repot it. All have done great. Some have even bloomed the following spring.