Help I think I'm killing my keiki

[No-Pro-mwa]

I was watering my keiki the other day and I did see the rot on a leaf but I didn't have time to dig deeper.

So today I am watering again and see it and go oh yea I better look into this so I start cutting the piece of leaf with the rot and then I get to pulling gunk from the stem part. I'm so pissed when I cut this from the mother and potted it I think I put it to deep in the pot and that part of the stem started rotting. I'm going to really get mad if I lose this thing.

Anyway I have pulled out some of the mix and now I am wondering if I should put cinnamon on it? I tried to get pictures but this is the best I could do.

[Orchidgirl83]

I would try cutting as much of the black stuff out, and then putting hydrogen peroxide on it.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well this was after I had cleaned it up. Should I take a knife and cut into the stem then put on the peroxide?

I'm very scared to do this awwwwwwwwwwwwwww I'm so not happy about this love my keiki and it's mother. I was so scared to cut it off and it was doing so good I was so happy then this......crapper.

[DweamGoiL]

Yes, you need to cut out all the black tissue. You can then apply hydrogen peroxide and once that dries, seal it with cinnamon. You need to act quickly; it spreads amazingly fast.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Thank you so much both of you I will do that.

[Island Girl]

Yes, I agree with the above, How is it doing today?

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well i butcherd the poor thing and we will see, I had to end up taking off the middle leaf as both sides had some black and by the time I was pushing it around it was hardly connected anymore. I took a sharp knife and shaved off of the stem. I'm so upset I let this happen.

After I had cut it from the mother plant in March and potted it up it was so happy and grew more blooms on the end of the spike it was blooming on. It's still blooming. I wish I could tell you how long it has been blooming must have been sometime in Feb.

I'm so careful when I water as I did crown rot one about 3 years ago, but I'm not sure I got water in the leaf I think it was resting on the mix and was a bit to low in the pot.

I will let you know if it makes it, all pray for Keiki.

[Island Girl]

Yes, it could be from having been potted a little too deep... IMHO, kiekes can sometimes be tricky this way (not always, but I'm paranoid about this... I've had it happen once, a number of years ago) I think they get used to
growing in the air, and when potted into a bark (or worse, moss) that stays moist, it's too much, and they rot fairly easily (while the adult is perfectly fine in the same moist mix).... For any (recently removed) kieke, I would mount, or pot in very coarse bark, &/or LECA/coarse sponge rock/lava rock & bark, just b/c of how used to the constant supply of fresh, moving air they are.... they still need this once they're removed. And only water when you're sure it's needed... It needs to adapt, & grow new roots adapted to its new environment. But, this is just my opinion, maybe others have a different opinion on this? I don't know.

Don't be upset if you lose this kieke, it really does happen, I'm sure this has happened to a lot of ppl on this forum. And I know how you feel, like I said, I've had this happen myself, on my first kieke, (5 years ago?), so if you still have mom, then maybe she'll give you another baby. Hopefully, you will come out on the other side of this w/ lots of knowledge, and a recovering kieke!

As for your post-op kieke... Give this link a read, it's worth it, & I think it will help alot! "BirdyBrain" had a similar issue to yours- she had no roots after 'surgery' & got hers to recover. (explanation starts on post #2).
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...remaining.html

Good Luck!! I hope you can get this baby to turn around! & Hopefully mom will get to producing more babies for you! I will also keep my fingers crossed for your little kieke! Be sure & tell mom to keep her sepals & petals crossed too! (trying to lighten things up for ya)

Ps, did you mean the kieke is still blooming, or the mother?

[No-Pro-mwa]

That actually makes allot of sense. I had never thought of it. It did seem so happy at first the leaves firmed up really nice. Both plants were stressed as were most of mine because they all need to be re potted and I was a frightened little mouse. Wish I had found this sight before hand.

The plant is just a white phal but I think it is because it is my first keiki and it was sort of a strange plant. I think the mother started the keiki because we had a snow storm and the electricity went out for a couple of days and it got cold in the house. It was blooming and dropped some buds and then later grew a keiki on the spike.

I was waiting for the roots to get bigger to undergo the transplant but the mother plant started to spike and so did the keiki they were both blooming at the same time. Then I cut off the spikes to see if they would grow another and the keiki did. I didn't want to transplant it while it was blooming but last March I just had to. I was scared in the first place as one I had never done it before and two the roots were now very long, some being around 10 inches. I did get most of them in the pot and like I said it seemed happy and the blooms which were almost done anyway dropped and on the same spike it just put out 5 more buds on the end of it. These are bigger than either of the plants have ever had before.

So now to have it go bad I'm just not happy, but it is what it is, and maybe just maybe it will make it. Here are some pictures of both of them. Left keiki and right mother.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Oh and I did leave it attached to all it's roots I just cut into the stem. I don't know if you can see much in these photo's.