I last posted an update on my Phalaenopsis orchid keiki grow experiment on September 1—almost three months ago! Since then many of the keikis have been growing quite nicely, developing roots (and, surprisingly, even a couple of spikes!) and today I decided it was high time to remove some of them and pot them on their own.
The first keiki had sprouted two good roots about three inches in lengths, along with a couple other new roots and a spike! I figured the spike was a sign that this guy was definitely ready for its own pot. The mother plant has her own spike as well.
As one of my readers pointed out a little while ago, it’s high time I updated you all on my Keiki Grow Paste experiment. When I last blogged about it at the end of May (yikes…um…it’s now Sepember), there was some really weird stuff going on with the keikis. But now, I’m happy to report that I do have some bona fide keikis growing, roots and all. Let me show you:
So, I am a gigantic klutz. It’s like my body has no sense of where it is in relation to other objects. I am constantly running into things, even in my own apartment: stubbing my toes, slamming my shins into the coffee table, banging my elbows into the bathroom walls. I’ve been known to walk into walls. Recently I chipped a tooth slightly by banging it with a glass when I went to take a drink of water. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that last night when I went into my Orchid Room to get something off of my vanity table, my hand hit the top of the orchid spike that I’m experimenting on with Keiki Grow Paste. Yeah…the one that I updated you on yesterday. Apparently those new growths are pretty delicate, because I knocked part of the growth clear off. DAMMIT!!
I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I slathered some more KGP on the broken end in the hope that it will just sort of regenerate…like when a lizard’s tail is cut off and it grows a new one.
I have no idea what will happen to the growth now. It’s too bad, because that’s the one that was farthest along in its development. So…we’ll see.
A few weeks ago I posted about my first experiment with trying to propagate my Phals using Keiki Grow Paste. As I mentioned, I originally applied the paste to two of my out-of-blooms Phals; the first application was on March 17 and then I applied the paste a second time on March 30. The two nodes on the mini Phal are not showing any growth, but three of the four nodes on my big white Phal are showing definite growth! Check out pics of the three developing nodes, from the top of the spike to the bottom:
The growth appears to be more than just a side shoot, but time will tell. It’s fun to watch these grow—hopefully they will turn into actual keikis that I can eventually detach and pot on their own!
Also, I just now applied Keiki Grow Paste to three nodes of a Phal’s spike that just finished blooming (this cute orchid from Trader Joe’s). Stay tuned for updates on that one as well.
I’ve read about this Keiki Grow Plus paste that you can use to try and propagate Phalaenopsis orchids, and I wanted to give it a whirl for myself. Basically, it’s a paste consisting of hormones that, if applied correctly, can encourage the growth of a keiki—a baby plant—off the spike of the original plant. Orchid propagation is not for beginners or the faint of heart (propagation involves a sterile environment…and that’s about all I know about it), so this paste provides a way for us “regular folk” to clone our own plants.
I recently traded in some MyPoints for an Amazon.com gift card, so I used that money to buy Keiki Grow Paste from the Carter & Holmes Orchids store on Amazon. It cost $27.95 for a very small (15 ml) container, but as I am finding out, a little goes a long way with the stuff. Side note: Carter & Holmes shipped my order very quickly…two thumbs up!! [Side side note: C&H no longer carries this paste on Amazon, but it can be found at the Amazon Repotme store…paid link.]