Hi, thanks for your advice. The mother plant is really stressed lately, it never recovered but at least the leaves were healthy. Now the leaves are just soft and fragile and I'm afraid I'll loose all of them Mom+babies.

Since the large Keiki has substantial roots - it's really a plant on it's own. I doubt it is still taking nourishment from the mother plant. Do you water the Keiki roots? It's basically growing like it would in nature. I would wait for the flowers - then repot.

I got a new idea on this keiki situation: I just planted the blooming one next to Mom but keeping it still attached for now. I suppose that in time the baby will start using the roots and the "cord" will just dry out and it will still bloom. I hope it works!

I never knew they grew pups on old flower stalks. Agave like.

That seems like a stroke of brilliance to me. Great thinking. It will soon be getting the best of both worlds!

Lillian

Yeap, that's what I'm hoping for. Also I think this is the way it works in nature :)

Smarty pants! It didn't even enter my mind to tuck it into a pot while still connected ... even though I do this with succulent runners all the time! Good luck, be sure to post to pics of the flowers!

some phales sprout keikis as a sport, most just send kekis out as means of survival as in this case, the mother plant as lost ts growing center and really wants to live on. Plants that are stressed to this level and have some resources left (leaves and some live roots) can either send up a pup from base of mother plant or if it still has a viable (green) flower spike a keiki to continue on... Nice job on tucking the keiki next to mom. Minimum keiki roots required for decent chance at survival after separation are 3-4 roots and at least 3-4 inches long... nice job...

I am thinking the mother plant won't be getting any better after this... I think it is just putting all of it's energy into the two keikis (especially the larger one). I would wait until the mother plant is almost completely dead, and then cut off the keiki.

Thank you all for your advice and sharing good information.

Update: looks like the keiki is doing well, it's growing new roots and the flower spike, it's not fully fixated into the pot but i'm not worried.

I'm also looking out for the little one, it has just one root, hope it manages to grow more but it's growing also a flower spike which is very exciting :)

I'll post more when the flowers come out!

Help!

I noticed these days that the flower buds looked a bit dry so I checked the keiki's condition, it had one new root growing in the air but when I pulled it out of the soil all the other roots were rotted.

Why did this happen? All the forums said to pot the keiki next to mother but in this case, it didn't work. If I had cut the keiki for sure it would have been dead by now but having it still attacked it has still a change to grow new roots.

Any advice is welcome here!

In all these posts you never mentioned your growing conditions, temperatures, how often you watered and sunlight. Even growing indoors, it is helpful to tell people where you are in the USA.

Does that pot have any drainage holes in the base?

Interesting that the Keiki looked so good and the mother plant was struggling.

Phalaenopsis are supposed to be easy, but many people find them difficult.

Hi arthurm2015,

I'm from Romania and we currently have a hot summer with occasional rainy day. We are in a mountain area so the humidity in the air is pretty high even indoors.

I water my orchids once a week and the pot has drainage holes (one simple transparent pot with drainage holes, and the white "mask" pot with no holes). I never leave water on the bottom of the mask pot just to make sure the roots don't get to much humidity and rot.

I did notice on this pot that there are some small flies coming out from the soil, it may be from the mother plant that I think might be sick.

Do you know what to do with these flies (small insects with 2 wings)? I don't want to contaminate my other orchids that are sitting just next to this one.

P.S. The sun in very harsh right now so I keep all of them in shade on a west facing window. They don't get direct sunlight at any time of the day.