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| I bought my first phal orchid in Feb of 2012. It had one main spike that split into two smaller spikes, each which had tons of buds on them. About half of the buds opened while the other half just stayed closed. At some point, I noticed that a lot mold had started growing on the medium so I repotted it, hoping that would help it. Though it helped with the mold situation, the other flower buds never opened. They just dried up and fell off. After a while, I I thought the plant was beyond hope but cut the spike a few notches down.
A few months later, two things started happening. A new leaf started growing on the base of the plant where the old leaves were. It looks kind of like a bud and potentially another leaf. I read online that new leaf growth should be larger than the older leaves. But the new leaf on the bottom is small and seems to have stopped growing (maybe because of the growth on top?). As you can see, a lot of activity has also been going on where I had cut the spike. It has 2 leaves of its own, and at least 2 flower buds. There are also things growing in between the 2 tiny leaves, potentially something that looks like a flower and also another leaf. What is going on? Is this a keiki and will it eventually be able to survive on its own? Is it normal that it was growing a new leaf on the bottom as well as other things on the spike? If anyone has advice on what I should do (just let it grow?), I would appreciate it a lot! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The usual advice re. Keikis is do not cut them off the mother plant till there are a couple of inches of roots. Some Phalaenopsis will readily make keikis as well as flowering from spent spikes. Look at the pic. all the Phalaenopsis are grown by one specialist grower. He enters his plants in various spring shows in the Sydney, Australia. At the end of the flowering season he snips the spikes off at the base so that the plants can put energy into growing new leaves and building up strength for the following years blooms.  |
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