Guides for raising keikis?

[KristenJ]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has a great reference (book or internet) for keiki care. Specifically (Nobile) Dendrobium and Phalaenopsis. I'm relatively new to growing orchids so I've never dealt with keikis before.

Old canes of my Nobile yielded 2 keikis. I picked up a keiki from an orchid show of another Dendrobium. Now I have one keiki on one phalaenopsis and two more on another. I'm looking for care information because I'm not sure if I treat them just like the mother plants, or if they get special treatment because they're young.

For instance, do I give my Nobile keikis a winter rest? Is it normal to lose one cane, but the others keep growing? Do they often switch between growing canes and then roots? Etc. These are just some of the strange things I have been noticing lately. I just want to raise these little guys up right.

Thanks!!

[WhiteRabbit]

I don't know of any specific keiki info resources. - for the most part, care fir them as you would the parent, remembering that small pots dry quickly.

For the Den nobile keiki and winter rest, it depends how big it is ... Winter rest is needed for blooms, so you aren't going to hurt anything by not restricting water and fert. And a tiny keiki may suffer from too little water. I don't know how big they need to be to bloom. Summer last year I was given a couple of nobile keikis; both were two canes, the larger ones on both being 4-5". I didn't think they were big enough to bloom, but around Christmas I saw nubs starting, so I pulled way back on water and eliminated fert. Much to my surprise they DID bloom in spring.

The Den keikis will most likely grow new canes when the original is finished growing, and those will grow roots a bit after.

[KristenJ]

Thank you!