Newbie question about keikis
 

Hi! I'm a complete beginner - both to orchids and gardening in general. And my orchid is doing something weird - hope someone can help me figure it out!

I received a phalaenopsis orchid last summer (July 2012) as a gift and, surprisingly, have kept it alive up to now (May 2013). It had quite a few blooms when I received it, and I watered it once a week like the florist suggested (drench the pot, let it drain, avoid water on the leaves). It had 3 large, healthy leaves and two healthy blooming stems. The blooms eventually dropped off around September 2012 and it's been living on my bedroom dresser since then (no direct sunlight, it hasn't been repotted, and I have never fertilized it). About 2 months ago (March 2013) I noticed green buds on the stems and figured it was blooming again. Also around that time one of the leaves turned brown and died. But the blooms have all turned out to be leaves, not flowers! I did a little research and I think they may be baby orchids (keikis)? But none of them have roots, and there are at least 5 of them. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance!

If it is a keiki then the leaves will come first then the roots. usually when a orchid makes a keiki its because its stressed out in some way, check the roots and let us know what they look like. They should be a silver color or green if just watered, and firm not soft.

Thanks Hannah! So 5-7 keikis means I'm doing something really wrong, eh? The roots don't look so good (but the leaves look great). The roots are a beige color and seem kind of shriveled. Should I fertilize? How do you think I'm stressing it out?

5-7 keikis is a lot, when you can take a picture of the keikis and the roots.

I think its stressed out from to much water or to little water.

Yes you can fertilize it but I don't think that's why its stressed.

How often should I be watering it? If it get that under control, what should I expect to happen?

I'm attaching a couple pictures. Some of the roots actually look black, so I'm assuming that's a pretty bad sign. Let me know if you want other photos.

Yep those look like keikis to me :)

Yes your roots don't look good I think you need to repot the orchid, when you do cut the bad roots off ( all the roots that are black and mushy are the bad roots) the leaves still look healthy so I think the plant can recover :)

when you cut the roots use a sterilized knife and cut about a half of a inch into the healthy side of the root.

:goodluck:

How does one go about sterilizing a knife? Alcohol? Does any potting soil work, or do I need some specifically for orchids?

Thanks for all your help! Given my two brown thumbs, I would normally give up on this plant and buy a new one. But I've gotten kind of attached to it, and I want it to live :) Here goes nothing.

To sterilize I would use a flame of some sort.

I would recommend a bark potting mix, firstrays.com is a good place to buy, or if you want a potting mix that you don't have to make you can go to repotme.com.

don't give up on the plant just yet even if you lose this plant (and I don't think you will) you have five keikis that will look just like it :)

You don't want to just use any regular potting soil- there are some easy to get mixes available at Home Depot or some of the other big box stores that are pretty cheap (especially since you save on the cost of shipping). I use Better-Gro Special Orchid Mix for my phals and they seem to love it! I will admit that for some of my smaller phals, I had to break up some of the bark pieces because they were too big, but overall, it wasn't bad to do.

Lowe's and HD carry orchid mix...I prefer the Better Gro bark mix, but the Miracle Grow brand will work too (it's more soil'y than my liking)