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Advice for new Phal with Keiki

9 years ago

Hi all,


I was given this orchid from a coworker who didn't want it because it no longer was blooming. It looks like it has a well developed Keiki on the spike, but the lower leaves of the mother plant has turned yellow and withered. I really like the idea of mounting the Keiki (and maybe the mother) in my bathroom at home, but have a few questions first:


The roots of the keiki are long and have grown in every random direction. I feel like at this length they will be hard to position so the plant can be mounted on a log that sits flush with the wall. Can I trim the roots back slightly? Especially the longer ones that seem a little shriveled and don't have active growing tips.


Obviously the Keiki is growing epiphytically now so hopefully it will continue to grow well mounted. Any advice for what to do with the mother plant? I think it would be cool to either mount that one too or grow it suspended in water. Any tips for how to make this change? I suspect it's current pot is not that suitable for it - it's sitting in moss and in a normal terra cotta pot without a lot of airflow.

I live in the San Francisco bay area (zone 17) and my bathroom has pretty high moisture (steamy showers, towels never dry out lol) but it does get cold for household temperatures in the winter (old drafty apt with little insulation).


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Comments (5)

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You need to do some research. Recommended temperature range is 60 to 90F. Cold and wet in winter might mean death to the orchid.

    Mine are surviving in this room and it is winter. It is 9:00 PM and the temperature is 16.3C and the humidity is 74%.

    A room heater comes on at 4.00 AM and it runs for a few hours when power is cheap to warm up the plants for the day.

    They get strongly filtered sun from a nearby window during the winter.

    How much light does the bathroom get? How cold does it get in the house mid winter? and so on....also conditions have to be pretty good to grow an orchid on a mount.

    The mother plant and the keiki look to be in reasonable condition.

  • 9 years ago

    I've actually been doing a lot of research, but I've read a lot of conflicting advice/anecdotes. i think I'm just going to give it a shot and do to optimize conditions. We're in a very temperate climate, coldest it gets outside in the winter is in the 30Fs. The bathroom ranges from like 60-70F throughout the year. It probably dropped down into the 50Fs at night last winter, but we have since bought a couple space heaters that should keep the temperature higher when it gets that cold. I can also move it to a warmer area if we have a cold snap? It will never reach 90F in the summer though. The room has a large west facing frosted window but due to the surrounding buildings no direct sunlight shines through. Maybe it would benefit from being moved to a sunnier spot during the summer when it's warm? Lots of air circulation if the window is open, and like I said we have the benefit of being next to the ocean and the bathroom also gets super steamy when everyone showers twice a day. Not sure exactly what the relative humidity is though.


    Any thoughts on cutting the roots?


  • 9 years ago

    Very temperate Climate. Lol. Actually, the Pacific North West has a great climate for growing orchids that come from Elevation in the tropics. Mist Forest orchids!

    Look at those thick leaves, they store water and when potted in Sphag. the plants are often killed by kind owners who mist and overwater.

    The Keiki is very healthy and it shows a trait that annoys tidy minded people, those roots will grow all over the place. Roots are valued and I never prune those that are healthy.

    Not mist forest orchids, tropical in the sense that they do not like being too cold, places where there are heavy tropical downpours with drier periods in between, places where the plant is lower down in the canopy and the leaves are protected from the worst of the tropical sun.

    All you can do is give it a try!

  • 9 years ago

    Okay great! I kind of like the crazy roots, but I think they'll be a little challenging to position correctly so it sits flush with the mount. I'll try soaking the keiki's roots before placing it on the mount, so they don't break if pressed against the wall.

  • 9 years ago

    You need to tell us where you live. What part of the world.

    The bathroom light is probably not strong enough. Put the plants outside in a brighter area.

    Jane

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