Help with orchid baby?

[mischa869]

Need to know what to do with my orchid - it looks as though it has a baby growing on it and is blooming itself. See my picture...

Do I cut it off and plant it? I'm an orchid newbie (this is the first one of two that I have adopted). I don't even know the type, but you may be able to tell from its buds.

Thanks!

[lostonthebeach]

Welcome.
Your plant is a Phalaenopsis and it looks like it is doing very well.
The baby plant is called a keiki . It can either be taken off or left on for a while yet. Do a search here on this site for keiki and you will find a ton of information and advice
Keep us informed on its progress and post more photos.

[RosieC]

Yes definately a Phalenopsis. It's the shape of the leaves on the parent plant which gives it away for me.

Ooh you're lucky getting a Keiki!

I've never had one but I've read that you can remove them once they have 3-4 inches of total root length. Yours looks like it has that easily so you should be able to remove it and plant it up.

You may want to search arround this site for advice on media to pot it into. I favour bark for my Phalenopsis but others perfer moss and various mixtures of media. It probably depends on your watering habits and climate where you live. Your parent plant looks healthy from the small bit I can see in the picture so if the media that is in suits you then maybe go for something similar.

[kiki-do]

Welcome to OB!
with your phal. You've gotten great advice from the previous posts.

[CoolPhrog]

Your phal is very happy and I am very jealous!!!

[Jkelee]

Hi Mischa!
I had the same questions you did when I first started chids!
I asked the pros on here, and they gave me great idears!

I let mine grow some roots about 3-5" long, carefully cut them off, and MOUNT And they do soooo well!!

I put some pics in this thread below, about this same issue.
The pics in there, up TOP, are of a Double babies-attached at the "Hip", and a 3rd one up top. I couldn't separate the ''twins", so I kept them together. And they now have a Spike! Just less than 6 months of mounting!! I posted this tread in 4/21/08 when they were still hanging on to Momma tight!!
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ep-coming.html

As for the pics below, the Twins and the Triplet, hanging on it's Mommy when a older.
And Twins now in spike.
Other single kiekis I got from many Mommys'.
Plus another Twin I have.

with yours!!!
You'll do fine!!

[cb977]