ok. not so good with plants, but my mom has Phalaenopsis orchid she was given and it has started to grow leaves near the end of the stem. I have never seen this before and was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on what its doing and what we should do from here. Thanks!!!
I saw the pix. I can't see the top of the "stem" so I'm just guessing that it's a bloom spike. That being said, my guess is that the leaves on the stem are some type of keiki. In other words, the plant is trying to propogate itself.
But I definately wouldn't listen to me, I'm on the other side of the planet from an expert.
ok. not so good with plants, but my mom has Phalaenopsis orchid she was given and it has started to grow leaves near the end of the stem. I have never seen this before and was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on what its doing and what we should do from here. Thanks!!!
Your Phal is growing a baby phal, called a keiki. Congrats! However there seem to be no roots on it yet, so it has to stay attached to the mother plant. Once the keiki has grown at least 4 inches worth of roots, you can cut it off the stem. Growing roots sometimes takes a very long time, so you may no see any for quite a while. It just depends on the plant. Until then keep caring for the phal normally.
__________________ Camille
Completely orchid obsessed and loving every minute of it....
sweet! no i has no roots. my mom thought the whole thing was dead didnt water it for a while, then it started to grow those leaves so she watered it again.
and yes by stem i mean spike, i am new.
The only other thing I could suggest, Thumb, is that you may want to beef-up your support of the spike as the keiki will start adding a lot of off-set weight.
Good luck!!
Congratulations black_thumb! you have yourself a keiki, sometimes the orchid will grow them out of stress so if you say the mother plant lacked water, well maybe that is why.
Take good care of her so you can have your keiki grow healthy roots! congratulations!