Keiki prolems!

[Azhael]

I thought my Dend. Keikis were doing good, but today i found out it´s not that way. One of them has a leave that was slooooowly fading in colour. At first i thought it was a light effect, since it was still green and nice looking, just paler. Today my father accidentlly touched(and i mean just touched) the plant and that leave just broke and fell.
Also i found a small amount of mold on one of the other keiki´s roots...should i treat it with alcohol?
Damn...i was hoping these ones were going to be ok....

PD: I told my father and he took them out of the pot to check them. Some of the roots are green and others are light brown,but the tips seem dead and there has been no growth at all. also, the lowest part of the young cane seems rotten...I can´t believe i overwatered a semi-hydroponic orchid.....u_u

[Azhael]

Here you can see one of the keikis. You can see the roots, and even where the leave broke.

[Azhael]

Please.....
I´ve lost the two-stemed keiki in the photos. Completely dead.
I have another one which roots are still kind of green, but they are not growing and i had to treat them for mold(which sounds to me like they are rotting). Please i would really like to save this one...the mother plant is probably going to die, and my only chance is now this keiki....
I´ve been reading but i just can´t figure out what the problem might be.

Should i mount it?? I read somewhere that Dend. keikis do well when mounted, but i don´t know if that´s true. It´s currently on S/H but it doesn´t seem to be adapting at all...
I don´t want to be annoying, really, sorry for bringing this back, but i really need some help....

[cb977]

Hi

Do you have a name for this Den? If we know the species or parentage, we may be able to figure out what would make it happy.

In the meantime, I'd spray them well with Listerine, let it sit for a few minutes and then rinse. When you repot (or mount), spray them again lightly and leave it.

[Azhael]

I don´t have any idea what species or parentage it may have....
I only saw the flowers when my father bought the plant, more than one year ago, i only saw them for a day since i had to leave and i just can´t remember exactly how they were. Only that they were purple. Browsing on Google, i think the closest thing it looked like was either D.phalaenopsis or D.biggibum, but i really don´t know. It has the odd falsely bilobulated leave tips that i´ve seen in biggibum pics, but i don´t know if this characteristic is resent on other species.

We don´t get the brown Listerine brand, and i read the other types are not to be used.

Thank you for your response.

[priz_m]

Hi Azahael, I am sorry to hear your keikis are doing less than good , what are you potting them in? what is your watering schedule?

I understand you not getting Listerine, what other fungicides do you have reachable? perhaps a diluted version of it can help the problem.

Hope it gets better.

[Azhael]

Thank you
I have it potted on LECA, and i water as the reservoir becomes emptier, which by the way is a very slow process.
I treated the mold with alcohol, and then rinsed thoroughly. But there´s still a little bit.
The only fungicides i can think of are alcohol, oxygenated water and....sun hehe.

[priz_m]

Azhael, that may be your problem, usually when transfering orchids to s/h you loose the roots that are not tailored for that enviroment, so perhaps the keikis found it to be too much moisture being born aerial and all. Perhaps a small fir bark mix with less water could be the answer.

As for the fungicide I would use oxygenated water, and drier conditions

[Azhael]

That definitely sounds like a good reason why it´s not doing well. I just thought since the roots were fairly new they could adapt, but maybe they needed to be even newer.
I´ve never been able to find the bark mix, all they sell here for orchids is soil Ô_o which i´m definitely not going to buy.
After a little search the closest thing i can think of that i could buy are coconut chips for terrariums...would these be ok? If so, how should i prepare them, and how should i water with this medium??
How dry is "drier conditons"....i´m very paranoid about that since when the roots become dry i fear they will shrivel and die...:S
The other option would be mounting but i don´t know if it would be a good idea with a not perfectly healthy plant.

Sorry once again for all the newbie questions, i´ve just done too many mistakes and i need direct advice :S
Your help is greatly apreciated

[priz_m]

Azhael, I will be honest, I haven't worked with coconut chips before, I know though they can retain plenty of water for a considerable amount of time, even more than LECA.

Before using CHC make sure you wash (even boiling is recommended) throughlouy to remove all salts and any other substance that could harm the root system.

By drier conditions I mean watering less often.

There's an alternative, though, you could place the Keiki potted in LECA, pot and all ,in a bag without any watering, this is a s/h version of sphag-n-bag. this will increase the humidity without the excess moisture in the LECA and that way the new roots would grow into the media and be tailored for the s/h enviroment that is known to be so successful.

The downside to plan B here is the fungal problem you already have, you would have to super treat it before attempting it and even then check on it to make sure is not back and/or spreading.

I hope someone else with CHC experience gets you additional feedback.

keep us posted!