Hi, I'm Elise and I need help

[eliserz]

Good afternoon,

I have had my orchid for about 4 years now and it has started to grow leaves from one old flower spike at the tip. Another spike has roots growing out of it. Do I just cut these off?

[DirtyCoconuts]

Hi Elise! Welcome

That is a keiki or baby orchid. You can remove it and pot it by itself or leave it there as part of a happy plant

[Dollythehun]

There are two? If I'm seeing this correctly, I'd cut them both off. The one with roots and no leaves, I'd toss. The one with leaves and roots, I'd pot up. I would also cut the non flowering stems back to an inch or two.

[WaterWitchin]

I'm with Dolly on this one. And it sort of looks like a new purchase or gift? After it finishes blooming I'd de-pot it and take a look at the roots and the medium it's in. Sometimes those keikis (baby plants) are the plant telling you it's time to repot because it's losing roots.

[DirtyCoconuts]

OP says she has had it for four years.

I don't know what that "roots only" thing is looking more closely.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

OP says she has had it for four years.

I don't know what that "roots only" thing is looking more closely.

Ah... wasn't paying enough attention to words. Was looking at pictures.

Then DEFINITELY look at repotting if you haven't. Pretty sure that's an issue.

[DirtyCoconuts]

pictures are SO much more fun LOL

[mica28]

Originally Posted by eliserz

Do I just cut these off?

Hi Elise,
As the others have said, this is a keiki. If you need a tutorial on how to cut the baby and re-pot it, here's one you can use on Youtube:

[WaterWitchin]

Just my opinion... YouTube in general, including “Orchid Girl” has sometimes helpful information and also quite a bit of not so good information. In general, I would be cautious following YouTube advice. And I remember Orchid Girl being a newbie here.

[KingKong]

I have seen Orchidgirl give bad advice, she documents everything including her learning curves which we have all had!
She also points out the horrible orchid crazies that drove her from certain forums leading to her making youtube videos instead so all the horrible people in this World critizising others did have a positive outcome to me anyway watching a lot of informative videos. The wrong information I could learn from - I question most things.

I'm with Orchidgirl. All flaws and learning curves included.