Sedirea japonica

[Pattywack]

I have a troubled Sedirea japonica minmaru that I purchased in June. I purchased the minmaru and a seigyokumaru from the same vendor and they arrived very wet. As soon as they arrived I removed them from their net pots in hopes of them drying without issue. The following day I completely removed all of their moss and re-mossed them in fresh, dry NZ moss.

They seemed ok initially. The seigyokumaru is fine. After several days the minmaru began to show signs of stress and apparently rot. The root tips blackened and three leaves looked to be blackening at their base. These three leaves were not at the bottom of the plant, nor the top...second set of leaves from the top and another lower leaf.

The minmaru lost all three leaves, I was afraid I would lose the plant. I've babied this little one along and it has not lost any more leaves, in fact there is a new leaf growing currently and this questionable growth.

I originally thought this poor plant was going to flower, now this looks more like a keiki? Anyone want to guess what this growth is. I spotted this last month, these pictures are from today. I am no longer worried about the minmaru dying, it has new growth but what is it shooting out from under this leaf?

Thanks for any suggestions

[syspila]

Looks like a new growth to me.

[dangerouseddy]

you're probably right it does look like a keiki

[camille1585]

My Minmaru (RIP, I still miss it) did the same. It lost several leaves to rot soon after I got it, and then a new growth started, just like on yours. A year later it died anyway. Wish I could get a new one, but NWO hasn't replied to my email about preordering for the show in France they will be at next spring...

[Pattywack]

Thank you all for your replies, as this grows it looks more like new growth to me too. I hope I can manage to keep it alive!

Camille, did your plant arrive wet when you received it? Were you able to save the keiki? I honestly thought the plant was going to continue dropping leaves and then rot from the crown. This new leaf gives me hope....guess only time will tell. These are such tiny plants and their flowers are so cool!

[jkofferdahl]

That's absolutely a keiki. I've noticed that Sederia seems slightly more prone than Phalaenopsis to developing basal keikis.

For what it's worth, Minmaru has given me issues as well. It seems to be a somewhat sensitive varietal.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Pattywack

Camille, did your plant arrive wet when you received it? Were you able to save the keiki? I honestly thought the plant was going to continue dropping leaves and then rot from the crown. This new leaf gives me hope....guess only time will tell. These are such tiny plants and their flowers are so cool!

I don't remember how it arrived. Since the pre-order value for shipping plants out of a UK show was really high we had done a group order, and they were all sent to one person who then dispatched them to the individual people. And this was back in 2009 or 2010!

I do remember that since it was a basal keiki, it never made roots. When the plant got another case of rot I was hoping the basal keiki would take over and but the rot spread to it too...