Rootless keikis + Phal. NoID Mommie update

Keiki 1 left, keiki 2 right.

     Yes, another quick update.  It feels like time is passing by so quickly now with these little buggers. Not much to say, just some pictures.

Keiki 2 with lots and lots of root nubs.

keiki 1 with only 3 roots.

     Phal. Mommie, on the other hand has not made any progress. I placed her in a cup of LECA to keep the lone root dry. The bottom most leaf has yellowed and turned crunchy around the edges. I snipped it off at the base and placed it back in the same window.

Phal "Valentine" progress after sunburn.

     It has been about 1 year since Phal Valentine has been sunburned, but is progressively getting better!  The growth is rather vigorous  too! The picture above is about 1 week old and within that time, the baby leaf has doubled in size. I have previously mentioned the need for new roots and the orchid gods have listened. 5 new root tips have emerged and are anchoring themselves.  I plan to cut off the woody, brown, hard roots when the new ones finish growing.

Last years sunburn.

New green roots next to older, woody, brown roots.

 

Phal. NoID "Green"

     Just another rescue phal that I never bothered writing about. There was nothing going on with this plant for a long time. At the time of purchase it was wilted, had naturally greenish-yellow blooms, was crawling out of its pot and its roots were so broken and misshandled, I had no clue weather to just lop them all off or leave them.

View of 2 new roots, plus some of the broken floppy old roots.

     FINALLY, after a very long time of inactivity, the plant has began growing a new leaf and two roots. The new leaf is growing in a bit lopsided towards the sun on my windowsill  I flip the orientation of the plant one a week to even the growth out a bit.  This wont be a problem in my future set-up, I assume, since it will be grown under lights.

Rootless removed keikis: Update.

     The keikis that were previously cut off the mom plant are still in my closet, in a cup of water. They have been doing great, but once again are showing wrinkly leaves. The method has been efective for about a month and has bought the baby plants enough time to grow a bunch of roots.

     I dont know exactly what caused all this rooting on keiki 2's stem. Even the unknown nub has shown 3 root bumps, as seen above. For now, I am assuming the drop of Superthrive I placed in the water is responsible for the fast growth.

     Above is keiki 2, showing 4 root growths on right side. This keiki is much more wrinkled compared to keiki 1. Im going to try and keep it in the water cup as long as possible before its removal and final transplant.

     Above, the left side of keiki 2 shows 3 more roots. A total of 7 have started growing within the last month.

     Keiki 1 has done little when it comes to root growth. It is concentrating more on pushing a new leaf.

     The mother plant is still hanging on for its life. I am misting its lone, stubby, aerial root daily. Its condition has not improved but has not become any worse since the keikis have been removed.

New Tolumnia Tequila Sunrise

      I am slightly embarrassed to say, I dragged my good friend to the Bronx Botanical Garden (a 3 hour total train ride) just to get this beauty.

     As some of you may know, I have been looking for a tolumnia for over a year now. Yes, they are available online but I was scared to go through because of previous bad shipping incidents.

     There was only a handful of tolumnias for sale, most of the orchids there were phals. Even with extortionate prices, the shop was full of buyers. I checked the discounted shelf first in hopes of getting a nice plant for cheaper, but it was full of literally dead plants being sold for $30+.  The Botanical Garden shop was also selling many mislabeled tolumnias. I was thankful that I did some research beforehand and was able to determine which were labeled right.

     As seen in the above picture, tolumnias are rather dainty orchids. The pot itself was 1.5" across and the tallest fan was 2" tall. Three fans comfortably fit in the pot. The  1.5' spike held 6 unscented, half-inch blooms - now holding 5 because one wilted from repotting stress.

     Even though it could have grew comfortably in its pot, it was extremely clear the tolumnia was not repotted for a long while. The bark was heavily decomposed and gave off a rotting, moist, wet-dog like smell. I was a bit surprised to see it was potted in coarse bark, being the roots are so fine.

     I bough the orchid with intentions of mounting it. Whenever I see mounted tolumnias, my heart melts! I googled some mounting techniques for tolumnias and did the best I could - The plant was placed on cork with a tiny bit of chopped sphagnum underneath, some live moss on top of the roots, and tied up with monofilament. I placed a ruberband around the cork to hold the spike stake in place, and am now just waiting for attachment. Once the roots attach to the mount, off comes the monofilament and rubberband.

     Yes, there are many roots sticking out. I thought it would be best this way due to tolumnias prefrence to dry quickly. I mist twice a day and soak the whole mount every other day for 10 minutes. So far, the mount dries efficiently, almost completely within an hour.
 

      As mentioned before, I am waiting to move to college this fall where I will have an 'official' setup and proper lighting. As of now, it will hang off of my wall where it receives okay light - hopefully enough to keep growth going.

Random growth updates.

BL Yellow Bird

    BL Yellow Bird has actually become more yellow, and the second bud has finally opened. The purple splotches are still very prominent but this is very attractive to me.

Repotted Phal NoID "Ikea"

Trimmed roots of Phal NoID "Ikea"

     Phal "Ikea" finally dropped its booms. Both spikes were still very healthy, green and looked like they were going to bud again, but I would rather the plant focused on growing the two leaves it started. I heavily trimmed the roots, actually. They were very broken and unmanageable.  Ikea seems to man-handle their plants. :P

Phal NoID "Miker with 2 new buds

      Phal "Mikur dropped all its blooms after 2 months. Two more have developed and one is on the verge of opening.

Oncidium Heaven Scent 'redolence'

     Onc. Heaven Scent is growing another P/B. Not much more to say. :)

Removal of keiki 1 and rootless keiki 2

     About 2 weeks ago, both keikis on phalaenopsis NoID "mommie" were becoming thirsty, wrinkled, and floppy. I removed keiki 2 from the weak, dying mother  and  reasoned that cutting it off of the plant would push more energy towards keiki 1 (which had a higher chance of survival, due to an already developed, yet small root). I felt too guilty to just throw the keiki out, so I cut the whole spike, threw it in a small cup of water, placed it in a forgotten corner, and let nature take its course.

     One week later, I come back and see that abandoned keiki 2 is doing better than keiki 1, that is still attached to the mother. I took the plunge and cut keiki 1 off, also.

The keikis re-plumped their leaves while in the water cup, as if they were never wrinkled and parched. 

Cut spikes with keikis - keiki 1 right, keiki 2 left

I have been holding the stems in a cup of approximately 6oz water, laced with 3 drops Physan and 2 drops mixed fertilizer. I also lightly wrapped the base of each keiki with unraveled cosmetic cotton balls. I moistened the cotton with the solution above and added a drop of Superthrive to each cotton bunch once it was wrapped on the keiki.

Rootless keiki 2

Keiki 1 with some rooting.

     I am extremely, extremely pleased and surprised at the results Im getting! Within 1 week, Keiki 1 started growing another leaf and pushed another plump root, while keiki 2, which used to be rootless is showing very tiny root nubs!  I am honesty flabbergasted, since I expected nothing from my 'experiment'.

     I cant say what exactly is causing the good results - The Superthive? The fact that the stem is in water? A mix of everything?

Keiki 1 with older .5 inch root and brand new root nub.

Previously rootless, half dead keiki 2 - now with two tiny root nubs (left & center green nubs) 

   I have placed both keikis back into the forgotten corner, and bagged them to keep humidity in my dry closet. Lets see how far this method can go.