New Phal with keiki

[new_orchid_rescuer]

So I went into a flower shop looking for clear plastic pots and ended up with a new phal with a baby! Only $15 so I figured it was 2 for 1! They didn't know what colour it will be, so it will be a fun surprise! I'm guessing that there will be some red because of the red on the underside of the keiki leaf (that's what I've heard)
So I have a couple of questions...
1. do you think the 'spike' in the third picture is a new root or a spike
2. should I repot... I know I really should because the media looks pretty broken down and there's mold on the wooden stick, but if it is a new spike would repoting interrupt it's formation? (deep down I know I should repot)
3. If/when I repot, should I split the keiki from the mom?

[quiltergal]

I think you have pretty much answered your own question. Yes repot. That media looks really funky. I don't think repotting will bother the new spike too much. You have lots of new root growth going on so it's the perfect time for repotting. I'd leave the keiki on for now to minimize the trauma. Once it has 3-4 roots of it's own that are at least an inch or so long you can pot it up.

[reinbo15]

It looks to me like that's a spike. Wonderful! You should repot, but definitely keep in mind that the disruption may cause the spike to stall. If it were my plant, I would not separate the keiki from the mother. It will damage the plant unneccesarily and then you will have to take care of two plants instead of one. Might as well save the extra space and attention to a whole new orchid a little later on.

[quiltergal]

I just took a better look at your pictures. You have a basal keiki. Is the spike growing from the keiki or the mother plant? I think you might be OK to repot the keiki now too. The roots look long enough. If you let it go much longer the root mass of the two plants will become entangled and difficult to separate.

[cb977]

Definitely in need of repotting
If there are rotted roots above the media, there's a pretty good chance you'll find a mess under it. When you repot, make sure you remove (with a sanitary knife or snippers) all the bad roots.

If it were my plant, I'd just leave the keiki alone...
but that's just one choice

[new_orchid_rescuer]

The spike is growing from the mother plant. Okay, so I got excited and separated them after the first post because there are 5 roots on the keiki and 4 of them are a couple of inches long, so I thought it would be okay. So many different opinions!
Anyway, it's been separated now, hopefully it all turns out okay!

Here's the pic

[new_orchid_rescuer]

I am curious though about the mother plant. Does it look like two plants to you? To me it looks like there is a new plant growing out of the crown of the old one... I tried to get a picture to show this, but it's kind of hard. One thing that makes me think this is that there is a small leaf below some very mature leafs on the (top) plant... What do you think?



So if it is two plants, then I'm guessing it would be a bad time to separate them, right?

[new_orchid_rescuer]

I should also mention that the roots were actually pretty good, at most about 10% dead/rotted. Maybe it was putting out arial roots because the media was pretty dense... no airflow. So it is surprising that the roots were as healthy as they were!

[quiltergal]

If the plant had crown rot at some point in time it may be trying to save itself hence the keiki growth and the new growth out of the crown. I have a mini phal that had some sort of crown damage and it finally sent up a new leaf, but there is a little tiny one that came up right next to it. So far the little one hasn't grown any more. It kind of looks like yours is sending up another basal keiki. It's hard to tell from the picture, It's that little shoot on the right of the picture in between two leaves. I think once repotted and on a regular water/feeding schedule it will figure out what it wants to do.