New Phal. keiki

[Chris147]

I bought yet another orchid this weekend and I have to say that I am surprized. This phal has a keiki. Lowes grew a keiki. Can you believe that? I have a few questions about this orchid. The potting medium doesn't look all that fresh, so I was wondering if it is ok to repot it because the mother plant is not in that good of condition. Also will repotting stunt the growth of the keiki or even kill it? This phal has 6 leaves right now and 5 of them don't look that good. The bottom 2 look like they might turn yellow because they are so flimsy. The next 2 up both have some sort of white spot in the middle of them. Can someone please tell me if this is normal, or if I should amputate them? The top 2 leaves are better tahn the rest, but the new leaf is in the best condition. The other has a few imperfections like a deep fleshy wound if thats what you want to call it. What is wrong with the leaves? I know I cannot detach the keiki yet because the roots are so small. Will it make it on the mother plant? Thanks for reading all of this, and answering.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The small white spots are damage that has healed.

The big white spot is sunburn damage.

It doesn't look like any of the leaves will be falling off soon.

Roots on mother plant must be checked.

Repotting okay for both mama and keiki.

Keiki too small to remove.

[Paul Mc]

Yeah, they don't really look that damaged to me, although I am a newbie. I had to repot one of my phal's this year that was dying and produced a keiki. I even cut off some bad roots and leaves, but the mother appears to be doing excellent now. Nice firm healthy looking leaves and even a new leaf that has shot up. So I would say repotting is safe, but if the mother dies at least you have a copy of the original.

I do see the white stuff on the leaves, although it looked a bit more like dirt to me. Have you tried taking a botanical wipe or a mixed dilution of neem oil to the leaves to see what would happen? If it doesn't help at all then at the very least, they would be nice and clean, lol...

Again, newbie here so I don't know what I'm exactly looking at as I personally have not had the experiences you guys have had.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Phals are not the easiest orchids to grow. Even experienced growers will botch things up sometimes.

It's just the way the cookie crumbles.