How long before Dendrobium kingianum keiki flowers?

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I didn't know that it was necessary to remove the keikis. I leave them on my kingianum, and only remove them if someone wants one.

oops - sorry - typo! meant to say it is NOT necessary to remove them I have a few plants with keikis on them for a while ...

[RosieC]

Oh and on the initial question of flowering... mine all flowered while on the mother. In fact I'm pretty sure that most of the flower spikes on my Kingianum this year were actually keikis that were flowering.

[palauorchidguy]

The dendrobium keikis will flower faster if left on cane. If you remove then it will need to grow more pseudobulbs of its own to bloom. It feeds off of the mother plant so if you provide the cane that its on then it will have more food to bloom sooner. You can cut the whole cane and keep it attached to the keiki untill it shrivels up as the keiki uses it up. Meanwhile it will root into a new pot or branch just keep it still somehow. I noticed that once the canes produce keikis they mostly die and stop blooming anyways. I think its like their final stage of life and the whole plant seems to die off later. It may be due to lask of space for roots to grow so its trying to make babies that will fall in another more suitable place maybe. I grow them on my plumeria tree and noticed they get so crowded and produce more keikis than flowers. Could be climatic issues though. Sometimes they get confused and make keiki flower mutants lol

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by palauorchidguy

The dendrobium keikis will flower faster if left on cane. If you remove then it will need to grow more pseudobulbs of its own to bloom. It feeds off of the mother plant so if you provide the cane that its on then it will have more food to bloom sooner. You can cut the whole cane and keep it attached to the keiki untill it shrivels up as the keiki uses it up. Meanwhile it will root into a new pot or branch just keep it still somehow. I noticed that once the canes produce keikis they mostly die and stop blooming anyways. I think its like their final stage of life and the whole plant seems to die off later. It may be due to lask of space for roots to grow so its trying to make babies that will fall in another more suitable place maybe. I grow them on my plumeria tree and noticed they get so crowded and produce more keikis than flowers. Could be climatic issues though. Sometimes they get confused and make keiki flower mutants lol

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

We would love to hear about orchid growing on Palau! How about posting an introduction about yourself, your growing condtions and your orchids in the Introductions - Break the Ice forum?

And note many people can't post photos until they've made 5 posts total. You've made one already.

[Roberta]

Only reason I can see to remove keikis is if someone wants one. I'd rather have one big, floriferous plant (the keikis do bloom as though they were still part of the mother, which the are) than a bazilllion teensy babies that just take up space. They get their water and nourishment from the mother plant as long as they are attached, so not much concern with watering them separately. (I do water from overhead, so they get wet anyway) Sometimes they detach themselves, no doubt one of the plant's reproductive strategies. At that point it can be potted up - even if few roots, there are enough reserves in the pseudobulb to enable it to grow as an independent plant. The "free" keiki will probably lose leaves (a way to conserve water)... no worries, new growth will provide roots and leaves.

[orchidsarefun]

It's really a tale of 2 kingianum. I have one that I've had for years and hasn't bloomed or keiked. It grows on though.
Then I have another I got as a single rootless cutting earlier this year. It's subsequently grown another cane, a keiki and is in bud. The new cane looks like it's in bud too.
The moral of this story is always get one that is in bloom or a division that shows evidence of having bloomed. There are spectacular kingianum lurking out there.

[estación seca]

I have heard several lecturers say many clones of Den. kingianum keikii like crazy, but don't bloom. Because plant people can't bear to throw out plants, they give them to their friends, for whom they also don't bloom, and who also spread around the keikiis.

Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids recommends throwing away your non-flowering kingis and buying a seedling from parents known to flower each year.