keiki spiking already

[Jeff214]

Happy new year.

I have a phal which has made a keiki on an old spike. The keiki's small, but it's already spiking twice. Not sure if this is unusual, but I thought I'd share.

[charlesf6]

nice !

[No-Pro-mwa]

Looks like the mother plant has a terminal spike. This could be why the keiki is blooming instead.

[greenpassion]

How long has that keiki been on the mother? From what I see it looks like it's a basal keiki. Or am I just not seeing the spike that it's growing from.

[Jeff214]

I have two keikis. One is basal. The other one is growing from a node on the brown, dehydrated spike in the photo. The latter one's spiking.

It's just bad photography on my part. It's crowded and I couldn't get a good angle.

[greenpassion]

I'm curious about what that white plastic thing is at the edge of the pot?

[Jeff214]

I just prop the mother plant with it. It just happened to fit snugly around the base. I moved it around to take the photo.

No special meaning!

[greenpassion]

Oh. Okay. That's resourceful. Are you going to leave the keikis with the mom? I have a large phalaenopsis that has a basal keiki, and I'm leaving it there so that when it matures I'll have even more of a display when they bloom. Is the mother plant healthy? I am never initially sure whether or not my orchids are throwing up keikis because they're healthy or it's a last hurrah.

[estación seca]

Back to what Shannon / No-Pro-Mwa said.... It looks like the parent plant developed the flower stalk from the center of the growing point. That is called a terminal spike. If this is the case, that part of the plant is finished growing, and the rosette of leaves will eventually die. When this happens plants usually develop another growth point near the base, as your plant did. This allows the plant to continue growing.

I would not separate the basal growth from the parent plant. I would treat the parent plant plus the new growth as one plant. Eventually the new growth will take over.

[rbarata]

It's not unusual for a keiki to bloom, even right after they've been removed from the mother plant. It happened to me already.