Keiki Paste - Did it Work?

[MrsH530]

Hi everyone! I recently bought some keiki paste from ebay, and I applied it to my orchids at the end of September. Based on the growth, I am not sure if I've managed to get keikis or flower spikes. Could you offer me your opinion?

[reliablefool]

Hmm...looks like flower spikes to me.

[MrsH530]

Originally Posted by reliablefool

Hmm...looks like flower spikes to me.

That's what I was afraid of..

[WhiteRabbit]

They do appear to be buds coming ...

[Laserbeak]

I bought a little tub of keiki paste several months ago and it didn't seem to work at all. I just bought a bottle of a liquid keiki hormone and put it on my plants yesterday, so we'll have to wait and see if that works.

[naoki]

How do you apply the liquid form? Spraying?

[Masdyman]

Could the second picture be a keiki forming?

Did you remove the node sheath before applying the paste?
Snip
Nodes on Phalaenopsis spikes will form either vegetative growth (keiki) or floral growth (a branch with flower buds).
If the node tissue is already differentiated so that it will become a floral branch, there is no way to change the result.
The trick is to get the paste onto the node before it is differentiated. However, there is no way to predict if an undifferentiated node will become a keiki or a floral branch.

[Laserbeak]

I dripped it directly onto the nodes.

[lepetitmartien]

- Choose the moment well, if the plant is in spiking mood, it'll be spikes whatever you do.
- keep the plant a higher than 25°C
- use the lowests nodes if possible.

And it won't be guaranteed anyway…

[MrsH530]

Originally Posted by Masdyman

Could the second picture be a keiki forming?

Did you remove the node sheath before applying the paste?
Snip
Nodes on Phalaenopsis spikes will form either vegetative growth (keiki) or floral growth (a branch with flower buds).
If the node tissue is already differentiated so that it will become a floral branch, there is no way to change the result.
The trick is to get the paste onto the node before it is differentiated. However, there is no way to predict if an undifferentiated node will become a keiki or a floral branch.

The second picture most definitely is a floral growth. I've left it growing because I love the flowers on that plant. The other plant I snipped the spike off because the whole plant started leaning to the side, and on further inspection it was having root issues.

I did remove the node sheath before applying the paste, and I did use lower nodes (not necessarily the lowest, but not high on the spike either).

I do have another place that I applied keiki paste and I didn't take a picture of it at the time, but now I'm not really sure what it is. I'll see if I can get a picture of it and post it. It's most definitely not growing in a leaf like shape - instead its almost like a sheath, however there is nothing inside the sheath (no buds), and it appears that there are multiple "sheaths" growing over top of each other on opposing sides. It's very hard to explain, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get a good picture of it but I'll try.

One of these days I'll have myself a keiki, but I guess today is not that day