Bunch of Keiki

[Floridan by Choice]

Check out the keiki on this phal. I used keiki paste on 10 of my phals a couple of months ago while they were still blooming and except of one phal that only got one keiki on it then died, I got a bunch of keiki leaves on the other 9 but not one root amongst them.

I’m here in Maitland in Central Florida. I grow outside around the pool (under a screen porch) which adds to the humidity from the rains we are getting this summer. I have a feeling that the humidity is keeping those keiki roots from forming. Trying to think like an orchid, why would I work to send out roots for water when the water is readily available in the air?

Anybody have an idea how to coax root growth on these keiki? Maybe a little more Superthrive – for vitamins and hormones? Or maybe a different watering or feeding schedule?

I feed weakly, every 6 to 9 days, based on when they need watering. I feed with 20-20-20 then next watering I don’t feed but add a little seaweed extract to the water and the next watering after that I don’t feed either but add a little Superthrive - no seaweed. Only feed every third watering and sometimes add a little fish emulsion with that.

I would appreciate any thoughts.

Cecil

[WhiteRabbit]

Roots wilk come - it can take a while. Humidity is conducive to root growth.

[Bill U.]

You have to be cautious with the amounts/frequency you are using seaweed extract and superthrive. Both of those concoctions contain growth-inducing hormones that can throw your orchids way out of whack and can eventually lead to malformed blooms. Depending on the type of phals, they may prefer it slightly drier to induce keiki rooting or they may want it slightly more moist (consistently).

A few members on OB have placed small amounts of sphagnum moss around the base of the keikis and fastened it with fishing line to provide a consistent, moist environment to help encourage rooting. I would suggest that you try the moss and cut back to only using Superthrive or seaweed extract twice a month or so- that is the approximate processing time of the hormones. If you are "stacking" the Superthrive and the seaweed extract, then you are giving double doses of hormones that can actually harm your plant in the long run because it can't maintain a healthy balance of hormones and control growth.

[Floridan by Choice]

Thanks for the information. Live and learn! I am really surprised that the use of the seaweed and the superthrive had the possible side effects of making the orchids grow too well. That might explain why one of my dens has two canes where the top leaves grew so fast that they didn’t space correctly and one caught the bloom spike inside the leaves and actually did deform the bloom. I had to manually separate the leaves just to get the bloom spike out of the bunched leaves and it only lasted a few days. Here is a pic of my damaged den, do you think the seaweed and superthrive might have caused this?

[angeliukas92]

Hi my dendrobium got a bunch of kieki on it more then 11 i'm lost now the biggest kieki is like 6 cm long it has 0.5 cm long roots and guess what it's blooming ! how is this possible ? did anyone see something or anything similar to this ? what do i do now ? water the mother plant till it blooms? or spray the dendrobium kieki for there roots to grow ? this kieki is not strong enough i think. Help don't want my firebird dendrobium not to bloom.

[WhiteRabbit]

The keiki is doing well enough to bloom, so I wouldn't change anything, care-wise.

[angeliukas92]

wuhu got a 3 flowers from my debrobium nobile kieki. still excited. cos i only bought it like a month ago and it was in a pour condition. i seen that he is letting out some little plants so i took him for 2 euro from woodies.. finally saw the beauty of the dendrobium will i start to spray the dendrobium cos the kieki has to grow it's own roots ?