I am a novice orchid grower. I have what looks like a small orchid growing on the top of one of my bloom stalks. How do I get it into a pot? Cut it first then pot it? Bend the stalk so it's in the pot but still attached? I have no idea how to go about this. Can someone offer some advice? Is this actually another orchid?
Yup, it's a nice healthy baby orchid. (they're known as keikis, the Hawaiian word for baby) You should wait until it has a few roots showing, maybe an inch or two long. Then cut the stalk below the new plant, and pot it up. Use quite a small pot and some fine orchid bark mix.
Looks like you're taking good care of the mama plant, so just keep doing what you've been doing. That baby might take a couple of years before it will bloom, mind you.
Elaine
How cool!! I keep my two orchids in a terrarium as we have a pellet stove and it gets really dry inside during the winter. I'm going to have to rearrange them so it doesn't try to grow through the glass.
Thanks!!
How wonderful!!! I've never seen this happen to any of mine! But now that I have seen yours,…If I'm ever so lucky…I'll know what to do!!!! How cool is that!!!!
I hope it survives!! Now I'm afraid that I will do something that will kill it. ;)
You indeed have a keiki, and it is developing nicely. Keikis are very common with Phalaenopsis and Dendrobiums, but are more often seen associated with the phals. Leave the keiki as is until it develops 1-3" roots. I then snip the stem about 2" below the keiki and plant it alongside the "mother" plant. Cover the keiki's roots with fine fir bark, barely covering the roots. I leave it in the same pot for a year and then you can either just leave it growing in the same pot or re-pot it in a separate pot. I plant it in the same pot as the mother plant because I think that the mother plant, being well-rooted, helps moderate moisture fluctuations in the potting medium, and this is good for the new plant.
You could just pot up the new "baby" plant in its own pot when you snip the stem, and if you do, pot it up in a 2" pot (I like to use clay with my beginner plants) with a mixture of 1/3 fine fir bark, 1/3 fine horticultural charcoal, and 1/3 finely chopped coconut fiber. Be sure your pot is well draining. I use a mesh-pot or if using clay, I always drill 3/8" holes all around the pot for good air circulation and moisture control.
Don't worry about harming the keiki while it is still attached to the stem. Just keep the mother plant happy and mist the plants every few days, being sure to mist the keiki's roots when doing so. Do your misting early in the day so that the plants have a chance to dry out some before nightfall.
Ken in Mississippi
Thanks Ken!! These are the cheap orchids that you get at walmart and put 3 ice cubes on every week to water. I have a cup with water in the terrarium for extra humidity. My Terrarium lid is not on snugly, just kiddy-wampus so the long leaves can stick out and not get bent. I also sprinkled some orchid fertilizer on the wood chips so they get a little more nutrition when the ice melts. I guess I'm lucky as I don't know if this is right and for sure don't know what I'm doing.
Before we got the pellet stove, a cousin gave me an orchid that she never got to bloom and within a year, I got a nice bloom stalk and several blooms on it. Then we got the pellet stove and they all dried up. I couldn't keep anything alive until I remembered that old glass terrarium. I'd like to try some other orchids, but don't want to spend much money on them if I'm going to kill them.
I think I'm going to have to repot them in the spring as I haven't repotted for over a year. Is that a good time?
Thanks loads for the info. I need all the help I can get.
Ruth
Ah, your growing is so, so much different than mine. I don't even know what a "pellet stove" is. I have had fish, actually a large salt water aquarium, in a terrarium (aka aquarium) but never a plant. Perhaps you can enlighten me about growing plants in a terrarium rather than in an open space. I just don't understand the reason for growing plants in such a way. Occasionally, I have had buyers ask about growing an orchid in a terrarium, but I could never give them a good answer since I have never grown a plant that way.
Ken, in Mississippi
Ruth, springtime is when Phals generally bloom, so that's not a good time to re-pot. The ice cube method of watering is rather controversial too, but it seems to be working for you. Cool to warm water is better. Misting with a spray bottle will be helpful, too. You could dissolve some orchid fert in the spray as well.
Ken, I think the terrarium is just a way to keep more humidity around the plants. I have friends in Utah who use old fish aquariums as mini-greenhouses. In winter the humidity there can be less than 10%, killer for orchids.
Yes, a pellet stove is like a wood burning stove. You can burn corn or wood pellets. It's wonderfully hot heat, but it takes all the humidity out of the air. We have two humidifiers going all winter, but it's still very dry, to the point where we are putting lotion on our skin all the time. At least, I am. Hubby just scratches his dry skin. ;)
I had an orchid out on the counter last year and didn't notice that it was getting dry and it just fell apart one day. Poof, all the leaves fell off. I felt so bad.
So when would you repot? Can I repot the one with the baby? Sorry for all the questions, but I want to do it the right way.
Thanks loads.
Living in the deep south, we have lots of humidity year-round. Our homes, at least those with central AC/heat, have low humidity since those units constantly takes the moisture out of the air. Thus, the climate is humid outside but dry inside.
Ruth, please tell me why you want to repot your phalaenopsis. When I know this I can give you some help. If you can take a picture or two of your plant and its potting, that would be great. If you can't take pictures, just tell me what your plant and its roots looks like. Tell me what your potting medium is made up of (if you can). I custom-make all my orchid mediums but there are lots of media that will work.
I have never used the "ice method" to water my plants. With well over 500 orchids that would be impossible. One way to increase your humidity in your terrarium would be to have a 1-2" layer of coarse gravel in the bottom and keep some water in this gravel. Just be sure that the potted plant isn't sitting in the water. That's going to surely cause you to lose your plant.
I mist all my inside plants every few days but the vast majority of my orchids are outside, in a greenhouse. I don't have to mist those since we have so much humidity here in Mississippi.
I would like to repot at least one of the two. It is still in the original pot that it came in and does not have any holes in the sides of the pot. Those seem to get more root rot if I leave them in there. I will take pictures when I get home from work and post them.Thank you for all the advice. I just love orchids, but have a hard time keeping them healthy.
Ah, you have said volumes. I give lectures on growing orchids and a question I always get is: "I bought a "moth orchid" (phalaenopsis) from a big-box store, and it had a beautiful bloom. Within 3-6 months it was dead. What did I do wrong?" I always say "You did nothing wrong. The plant was (probably) potted up in sphagnum moss, had (perhaps) a single drainage hole in the bottom, and your plant literally drowned or suffocated".
Even when I pot up my phalaenopsis plants in clay pots, I drill several 3/8" to 1/2" holes all around the pot. I want my potting medium to drain fast and I want to have air movement within the pot as well. Sphagnum moss, unless one is really attuned to what is going on with it water-wise, is a very poor orchid growing medium.
The main reason for my using clay is because phalaenopsis plants, unless they are compact or mini-plants, will get very top-heavy, and clay has the weight to resist tipping over. Generally, I now prefer to pot up all my orchids (well over 500 of them) in mesh-pots, or when they get really large, mesh-baskets.
Ken
Well, here they are. The closer I look, the more I think they need repotting. Lots of dry roots on the top. The first one is the one with the baby, the second one I think I need to reposition in the terrarium as one of the leaves is curled. The third picture is the terrarium.
Ken, you have an awesome website. I just might come back in my next life as a ladybug so I can hang out in your greenhouse!!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Ruth. I cannot adequately tell you what they mean to me. Check back to my website in the spring. I should have several new orchids available and I can (finally) begin to ship my tropical plants out again.
Um, I don't really know what to tell you to do with the terreriam. I agree, you need to re-pot. Find a ceramic orchid pot with lots of side-wall openings, perhaps 4x6" or 6x6" and a depth of 6". Can you find another aquarium/terreriam and put the curled up one in this? I still think that if you just find a nice sized saucer, fill it with pea-gravel, and put the potted plant(s) on it, keeping water in the saucer and occasionally misting the plants, they will do well. This will give you some humidity, and that's really all you are striving for. The plants are apparently getting sufficient light.
Ken
Thanks for the advice Ken. And also for not saying they look terrible. ;) It's been a crazy summer with family in the hospital, so everything got neglected for quite a while.
I'm going to try to repot this weekend, hopefully they don't have too much rot underneath. I have my mister handy, although I don't think I will put fertilizer in it as I have a grandson that will squirt himself in the face if he finds it. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks again.
Keep in mind that when you find roots that are truly dead, you want to trim them back to healthy tissue. Dead roots tend to absorb water like a sponge and hold it, creating a too-wet enviornment.
Ruth, do you use supplimental lighting or just natural light through a window?
I would not worry about adding fertilizer to your mister. The humidity is what you are after. Also, for me at least, I would not fertilize orchid plants for a couple of weeks after re-potting, and then I would use 1/2 strength fertilizer once a month during the late fall/winter months.
I just have it in a west window. After we get rid of an old porch on the south side of the house, I will have a south facing window to put them in. No supplimental light.
Do you soak your wood chips/potting mix before you put the orchid into it?
Sometimes the orchid media will be wet, but usually not. I may leave the re-potted orchid plant(s) in the dry media for a day or two before watering. I call it their "rest time". I don't really have a hard and fast reason for doing so. With over 500 orchid plants, I am pretty much constantly repotting something, but 99% of this is repotting my small orchids into slightly larger pots. I start out with 2", then 3", then 3 3/4", then 5", and finally 8" mesh-pots or baskets. That progression may take 2-3 years! That's for my cattleya alliance orchids, what most of my baby plants are. As I previously said, because of the phalaenopsis' fast and top-heavy growth, they typically will go into clay pots when then reach the 3 3/4"-5" pot.
Ken
