What to do with keiki on dying stem?!

[Beatrice]

One of my orchids is growing a keiki on a stem that is going brown. What do I do to make it survive?!

I'm totally new to this! Any help would be appreciated!

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board! We look forward to chatting with you. When you get a chance, post an introduction in

Introductions - Break the Ice

The old stem is dead, so it will not help the keiki any more. Cut off the keiki now and pot it separately. People treat them differently with good results, but perhaps use a fine bark mixture. Let it get almost dry before watering again. Give it the same light the parent plants gets. Good luck, and let us know what happens!

[Beatrice]

Thank you very much for replying, I will try to pot it. I'm excited to see whether it will grow. I'm coming to love these little plants a lot...

[campchi]

I would just sit it ontop of sphagnum and let the root grow more. Soaking it in seaweed or kelp solution will definitely encourage more root growth. I have good success using seaweed on sick orchids.

[lotis146]

I'm with Campchi in that 'potting' it isn't entirely possible b/c it only has the one very small root. I have a keiki still on its spike but I cut it off before the spike died completely. In my case however at the time the keiki didn't have a single root, so I put the cut end of the spike in water like you would cut flowers, I also added Kelpmax & some K-Lite to the water. It's been growing really slow but it grew another leaf (now 3) & has just started yet another, it also grew a root. I've put a little bit of moss around the root & soak it. What I need to be doing is misting the root daily, if not a couple times a day. When I was doing that I saw more growth. Since your little guy only has this one little root you're going to have to tend to it and nurse it more like you would an infant vs. a toddler vs. a teen. Don't drown it but keep it moist. Keep us posted.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Beatrice]

Thank you everyone, I shall be misting my little daughter assiduously!

I never sprayed or fertilized the mother plant for two years so I think it has strong genes. Hoping for the best

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials