What to do with these kiekies?

[cpeters5]

I bought a few new orchids this week. Among others are Den. hercoglossum and loddigesii. Both have 6-7 canes and some of the canes carries multiple kiekies. Some of the kiekies are quite mature.

To encourage bloom on the parent next spring, should I separate these kiekies? What are the pros and cons of leaving them on the plants, and would their canes produce spikes while remaining on the parent plants?

Thanks,
pax

[WhiteRabbit]

If the parent is in good shape, there's no harm in leaving the keikis on. The keikis can bloom on the parent.

[katrina]

Leave them be...having them on the plant doesn't keep either of them from blooming. I only remove them when I want to share the plant w/others.

D loddi is a keiki machine. I'm not even sure if they'd really qualify as formal keikis because it's just what the plant does and how it gets to be specimen sized.

The hercoglossum does sometimes make "keikis" but not as much as loddi.

I can't find pic of my loddi but here's herco from this summer. I should've take the pic a little sooner because the flowers had already started to fade in this pic.



OH, I don't know if it's a maturity thing or something about the weather this year but herco opted to push out a second huge flush of blooms and it's blooming again right now.

[cpeters5]

Wow, what a majestic specimen! I didn't realize it could get this big. I sometime saw them grew upside down, perhaps that won't require a lot of lateral space.

[katrina]

I've had herco since Summer of '08 and it wasn't much bigger than yours when I got it. Once it gets going...it really grows. I call it a happy weed. For size reference...that's a 6" clay pot. Very easy grower.