Den Nobile kikies - Orchid Board

Sarsonuk · #1 05-24-2009, 12:30 PM

I have an Den Nobile that I have had for nearly a year now. It flowered in winter as expected and now it has been growing like crazy for a few months in the new spring sun. Suddenly though during this new growth several off shoots or what I believe are kikies have shot from the old flower nodes and the new cane that is growing. Is this plant in distress from all the growth? There are small roots coming from all the kikies. Should I remove the kikies. I have read on this forum you should leave on until throughly established but I am concerned they are going to grow quite large on an already large plant and make the plant top heavy and fall over. If I leave on the kikies will the plant still flower in winter or will the kikies take all the power away from the orchids food supply and prevent flowering?
My book makes no mention of how to deal with this, can anyone give advise from experience?
Thanks
Pete

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #2 05-24-2009, 12:41 PM

Dendrobium nobiles actually grow pendulously (downward) in nature. That's why they're not "top heavy" in the wild. Potted culture makes them "top heavy".

Singingirl96 · #3 05-25-2009, 01:45 AM

same is happening with my 2 dens. I potted mine in a basket and I'm not staking any of the shoots anymore. I'm just letting the plant do its thing and it seems to be doing just fine hanging out of the basket.

Sarsonuk · #4 05-25-2009, 03:02 AM

Do you have any tips for staking the shhots? How big is your den with the shoot left on? Does it cause a problem with the main plant if you just remove the shoots?
Thanks
Pete

AboutOrchids · #5 05-25-2009, 03:24 AM

Keikis can sometimes happen if the Dendrobium doesn't have a cool, dry winter rest, but if yours bloomed already, maybe there's another cause. They do drain energy from the plant, so remove them if you don't plan to grow them further. If you want to keep them, they can be removed and potted once they have some roots.

camille1585 · #6 05-25-2009, 11:22 AM

To add to what Mark says, if the plant has a lot of keikis but you still would like to keep some, just keep the amount you want and remove the rest of the keikis. Too many of them are a strain on the plant. I have a phal who loves to keiki, but 4 at once seemed to tire her. I only kept 1 on the plant.

Sarsonuk · #7 05-26-2009, 01:19 PM

Hi Camile,
Do you have any tips on removal of these kikies? I have never done it and dont want to hurt my plant,
Any help appreciated,
Thanks
Pete

Sarsonuk · #8 05-26-2009, 02:49 PM

Hi Guys,
I have now removed all the keikis with a sharp knife. I removed all keikis even with roots that were short and planted them at the side of the mother. I have caused some minor damage to the mother when removing but I dont think its major, well I hope so anyway ;-). I have potted up the biggest shoot in its own pot so I can give this as a gift to a friend.
After reading some other posts it seems that my new orchid feed maybe to strong as this seems to be the reason for the kikies so I am going to reduce the feeding to twice a month for this orchid.
Thanks for all the help,
Cheers
Pete

RosieC · #9 05-27-2009, 08:49 AM

Hi Pete,

Just a thought, but rather than reduce how often you feed, you could dilute it more.

The advise is usually to feed 'Weekly Weakly'.

Vulpes Velox · #10 05-27-2009, 08:28 PM

my den nobile both grow bloom and sets up lots of keiki's aswell. previously i removed most without any trouble to the plant. but now im leaving the new ones on (which are somewhat big by now) since i spoke with a prof. grower about it who had really big and beautiful orchids. he said just to leave them all on.
but either way i think your fine. leaving to many on, might as some said make it less likely to bloom i could imagen, but im giving it a try now to see what happens