Phal. equestris keiki

[jkofferdahl]

This Spring, one of my Phal. equestrii, a so-called "Orange" varietal, stopped blooming, and formed a keiki at the end of the spike. The spike itself bloomed forever, reaching over 2 feet in length. Almost immediately, the keiki started root development so that after about 6 months it has more than enough root to survive separation from the mother plant, and the plantlet itself has three leaves with a leaf span of perhaps 3 inches. Looking at the plantlet last night I realized that this tiny, immature little keiki is in spike! I've not before had a keiki develop and thrive like this one has.

[WhiteRabbit]

so cute!

[Leafmite]

Two of a favorite orchid is always better than one.

[camille1585]

That seems to be fairly common with equestris, my 3 standard equestris plants often grow keikis at an astonishingly fast rate, and then they usually bloom before I've gotten a chance to pot them up separately. My other two types do it less frequently.

Lucky you to have the orange variant, I'd love to add it to my collection but availability of them here is patchy (and they aren't cheap). I know it isn't very orange, but I love collectiing equestris. My latest one is is a "B#100" AM/AOS.

[DeaC]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

This Spring, one of my Phal. equestrii, a so-called "Orange" varietal, stopped blooming, and formed a keiki at the end of the spike. The spike itself bloomed forever, reaching over 2 feet in length. Almost immediately, the keiki started root development so that after about 6 months it has more than enough root to survive separation from the mother plant, and the plantlet itself has three leaves with a leaf span of perhaps 3 inches. Looking at the plantlet last night I realized that this tiny, immature little keiki is in spike! I've not before had a keiki develop and thrive like this one has.

Live turtle???

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by DeaC

Live turtle???

Sadly, it's plastic. I have little plastic animals sitting all through my plants.

[estación seca]

I'm imagining a large log with a huge colony of Phalaenopsis equestris spiderwebbed all over the log: Spikes form keikiis which root to the log which form spikes which form keikiis....

[Manu]

Gotta love those equestris! I find the keikis from flower stem will flower very quickly (always under a year) whereas my basal keikis take forever! I have one basal keiki over 2 years old and still not blooming! Yours is obviously.happy! Do you leave them on the mother plant or seperate it?

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by Manu

Gotta love those equestris! I find the keikis from flower stem will flower very quickly (always under a year) whereas my basal keikis take forever! I have one basal keiki over 2 years old and still not blooming! Yours is obviously.happy! Do you leave them on the mother plant or seperate it?

I leave keikis attached to the mother plant for as long as possible.

[Fishkeeper]

Nice! I have an equestris that's a keiki itself, maybe 5" across, and starting to put up a spike already. It was on the parent's spike, and was just cut off a couple months ago.
I'm tempted to put keiki paste on the spike and see if I can get a keiki off this keiki.