Keiki on dying Denphal
 

Hello all!

I have (had?) a denphal that came down with a bad case of a brown spots, couldn't recover, and is basically on life support. The canes lost their leaves and two of the three started to rot, so I took a chance and bought some keiki liquid. Lo and behold it did indeed create what looks like a keiki near the top of the healthiest cane. This was back in April 2022. I've included some pictures, but since this is my first keiki and the whole thing was a bit of a Hail Mary play to start with, I'm looking for advice on getting those roots to grow. It looks like a healthy keiki, and it's got 2 very small (about 2cm) roots and a third growth that I *thought* was a root, but now looks like it might be another shoot or cane?

I've been watering the mother plant as often as I can without rotting the remaining roots, such as they are. The plant is on a humidity tray to boost humidity as much as possible.

Any help with my little science project here would be appreciated!

The roots on the keiki aren't likely long enough to separate. Maybe it would work if you had a high-humidity enclosed space so they could stay moist, warm and well-aerated.

You need to figure out what happened to the parent. Are you growing it inside or outside? Den phals would love your hot, humid summer outdoors in bright shade or dappled sunlight. They shouldn't every get dry for long. From what I've seen many people run into trouble by not watering them enough when they're pushing new growth. Then the new growth turns black, the person thinks the plant is rotting, and waters even less. But Dens with new growth need a lot of water.

I definitely did not water the parent plant enough. It was my first Denphal and I followed a care sheet that said they have to dry out before watering again. The leaves developed brown spots that went all the way through the leaves and then the canes started browning as well. As you said, I was probably not watering enough and it couldn't fight the disease.

My orchids are on a wire rack with grow lights. I have another Denphal that seems to be doing much better, putting out new canes and I'm hoping for a bloom soon. If I just get more canes I'll try having them outside after winter!

I've seen some setups for increasing humidity, I'll see what I can do! Keeping the airflow going worries me a bit.

Thanks for the advice!

The brown spots were not disease. They were the leaves and stems dying from not enough water. If you use air conditioning your home humidity is probably too low for fungus to be a problem unless the plants are inside an enclosure.

Interesting! Is that a normal sign of underwatering for denphals? I'll keep an eye out in the future, but that's good to know.