How is keiki paste used on cattleya

[rickbarber]

I just made a batch of keiki paste and don't know for sure how to apply to cattleyas, maybe to the rhizome.

[Anglo]

Cattleyas reproduce asexually by division. If the rhizome (the adjoined pseudobulbs) is broken or cut, both pieces can live on as separate plants. They aren't known for producing keikis like some orchid genera do. I can't say it's impossible, but I don't think it will happen. If it were to happen, it would be at a node on a flower stem.

[Don Perusse]

I DO beleive you are right Anglo.

[Ryan Young]

Put paste in dormant eye bud at base of pseudobulb, wait a a few months and bingo new lead. Did it with a Rhyncholaelia digbyana on an older eye and it's going crazy with massive amounts of new roots, oh and also it made 2 new leads on the newest pseudobulb, which normally put out just one.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Ryan, I did essentially what you are talking about, it worked great. I did this on really ancient back bulbs on a Cattlianthe Golden Wax.

The paste I used was Keiki Grow (Canadian manufacturer - Plant Hormones Canada). It is a green lanolin-based paste.

On Cattleya alliance orchids, there are usually two "eyes" that are the primary spots where new leads develop (essentially at rhizome level). If these are healthy, green, they are the best eyes to try to stimulate into growth. However, if the pseudobulbs are really old or the primary eyes are damaged, there are tiny, secondary eyes a little higher on each pseudobulb (they look like tiny green scales at the next 'joint' above the rhizome); these can also be made to develop into new growths.

On the back bulbs that I was trying to get to grow, most of the primary eyes were dead or damaged, though a couple were ok. The old back bulbs had either no leaves, or very old leaves. Absolutely no roots on the back bulbs. The tiny secondary scales were mostly OK. I left all back bulbs attached to the plant when I was using the keiki paste.

On every primary or secondary eye that I wanted to induce into growing, I took a very sharp, new Xacto knife and scraped the eye just slightly, enough to scrape through the cuticle into green tissue, but just barely. I then applied a very small amount of keiki paste to the scraped area. I did this in mid-winter 2012-2013 (maybe January?).

The eyes swelled slightly, but nothing happened for quite a while. That is, until I severed the rhizome to remove the cluster of back-bulbs (in July). I tethered the clump of old back bulbs together in a terra cotta pot with a few wine corks in the bottom to give any new roots something to grab on to. Within a few weeks, four of the eyes were quickly growing. All 4 leads are doing well, and two of the leads are now blooming. I intend to divide the back bulb clump this summer & give the leads away.

FWIW, I think the keiki paste initiates a little development, but severing the rhizome seemed to be the "kick" that got the leads growing (just an observation & opinion).

I will try to take some photos of this later tonight if I remember.

[NYCorchidman]

theoretically, keiki paste should work on cattleyas or any other plants. You just have to apply and then see what happens.

Cattleyas have a few ( I think usually three visible dormant eyes, two of them being much bigger) dormant eyes at the base of the lead. Normally one or two of these will wake up and grow.

Other than severing the rhizome in induce the sprouting of the dormant eyes, you could apply the keiki paste on these dormant eyes and see if they want to wake up.

just my opinion.

[naoki]

Ryan and Whisperer, it is good to know that this works! I've been wondering about the effect of auxin (KLN, rooting hormones, Kelp extracts) and cytokinin (keiki paste) on sympodial growth. Cytokinins should release the side bud (dormant eyes) from the effect of auxin excreted from the leading shoot, which suppress the development of dormant eyes. So cytokinin should promote branching.

This means that if you overdose Cattleya with rooting hormones or Kelp extracts high in auxin, the plant doesn't produce multiple leads (i.e. linear growth). Has anyone seen this effect?

How are you making keiki paste, Rick? Coconut water or from some other fruits?

[Orchid Whisperer]

Hi Naoki

FWIW, I did use KLN last winter on many of my Catts to try promoting better roots. I did use it frequently (not sure how often), maybe more than prescribed. In my Catts, the ones that tended to branch before also continued to branch, but the number of plants that I was doing this with was small, hardly enough information to draw any conclusions from.

[POLKA]

Rick
are you up to sharing your recipe / brew?
You made it sound like home-made keikei paste.

Rex

[naoki]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Hi Naoki

FWIW, I did use KLN last winter on many of my Catts to try promoting better roots. I did use it frequently (not sure how often), maybe more than prescribed. In my Catts, the ones that tended to branch before also continued to branch, but the number of plants that I was doing this with was small, hardly enough information to draw any conclusions from.

Thanks for the info! I guess the difference is that Keiki paste would be staying on the eyes for a long time. But KLN are sprayed/drenched. So even though small amount of hormones are enough to influence plants, auxin may not be absorbed readily through eyes. So this may be a reason that KLN might not influence the branching pattern much. Additionally, auxin is highly light sensitive, so it is likely to be broken down quickly above ground.