Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web ! - Help! Is this a keiki? Phalaenopsis with one basal keiki, now growing strange leaves

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- - Help! Is this a keiki? Phalaenopsis with one basal keiki, now growing strange leaves (http://www.orchidboard.com/community/propagation/101557-help-keiki-phalaenopsis-basal-keiki-growing-strange-leaves.html)

The terminal spike can bloom. And I think my mother plant also bloomed after I detached the terminal growth. Then she grew another. This is one of my first orchids. She has to be 10-15 years old. I still remember the night I bought her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dollythehun (Post 903322)

I'm not so sure OrchidBro. I have a phal that has done this same thing twice. The keiki was coming from the crown. It grew fast with lots of roots. I detached it and potted it up. The mother also had great roots so I repotted her also. Drat, if she hasn't done the same thing again! While I understand Roberta's wanting to leave it, I don't want a huge multi stemmed plant, so I'll remove it again when it grows roots. My question is why is it doing this? And twice? I'll post a picture in a minute.

Yes, I retract my first comment. I was looking at photos 3 and 4 and from those photos it looked like the new leaves were coming from the crown. Once Veska mentioned a flower spike was coming from the crown I looked at photo 1 more closely and saw the terminal spike on the main plant.

Some plants seem to just randomly develop terminal spikes but some varieties also seem to be genetically predisposed to produce them. I did some reading on Phalaenopsis ‘Timothy Christopher’ (I think that’s the right name) after a store near me got a bunch of these in and almost all had terminal spikes. Apparently, this variety is known for producing them.