Trader Joe mini phal, but are these Kekies?

[cinnybuns]

Hi all,

I just picked up a mini phal at Trader Joes (couldn't resist). The roots look good and the flowers were super pretty.

I'm slightly confused by the many little leaves surrounding the base of the main plant... are these Keikis? I've heard of the term but never seen one in real life.

Or could they just be seedlings stuck together with a bigger plant?

It looks to be around 3 clusters of additional leaves. What are your thoughts?

I'm trying to attach pics to this post but it's saying i'm not allowed to post links....urg...

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mini leaf

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[gngrhill]

keikis would be my guess. You will know if they start growing roots.

[camille1585]

Looks like a bunch of basal keikis to me! You'll have a really nice specimen plant once all those mature.

It can also happen that when the plant was potted up as a seedling, there were other, smaller plants lumped with it that develop a bit later. Though in that case they would not be connected to the main plant.

[cinnybuns]

yayyy I'm so excited!!!

Looks like I have a long way to go, before the roots come out. all the existing roots there seem to be from the mother plant.

[camille1585]

I have rarely seen roots on the few Phals I have that did develop basal keikis, until the keikis are very very mature. The keikis seem more like secondary crowns rather than independant plants.

[cinnybuns]

I'm still a beginner at the orchid obsession, but if I'm reading your post correctly, to just let the keiki's grow up/share the pot with the mother plant and not to bother removing until the plants are big enough/enough roots have formed.

I still have to repot the orchid, but I don't want to run the risk of losing the flowers just yet since a 2ndary spike is forming.

[camille1585]

With keikis (basal or growing on spikes) you need to wait until they have a couple good roots before removing them. But with basal keikis, I generally prefer to leave them on the plant since it's quite a show when mother and babies bloom together. Or if there's several keikis I'll maybe remove one to have a backup of that plant, and leave the rest .

[MrsH530]

I agree with Camille. I would love to have a plant with basal keikis just for the incredible show it would put on when blooming. I would only remove it if absolutely necessary, but that is my personal opinion. I'm sure if you wanted to, once the Keiki has enough roots you could remove it.

[RandomGemini]

I have a mini Phal I picked up from TJs because it had basal keikis. I wanted to see how well I could grow it and see what kind of a show I will get out of it later. It will be a fun experiment!

[cinnybuns]

You know, I never thought about the mother/babies blooming together. Now that I visualize it in my head it can totally be amazing. Thanks everyone for your impute. I too can't wait to see how it come out.