Orchid Care

So, as you may (or may not...I don't know how closely anyone other than myself actually looks at my blog...) have noticed, the picture of the orchid on the top right over there has had some changes to the notes on it. I thought, in retrospect, that it may be nice to explain a bit for those who may have no f-ing clue what I mean by some of those terms. Orchids are an obsession, often leading one to learn Latin and certain Asian words and such...but I digress.

The orchid pictured on the right here is a Phalaenopsis type orchid. They have a low profile and wide, flat leaves and very thick roots which often perform photosynthesis. This is quite helpful to the plant, and is also rather unusual in the plant world. It normally (if it weren't a greenhouse-bred fancy hybrid) would have found itself a nice spot on the upper section of a tree somewhere in Southeast Asia. This particular orchid was purchased in flower at the King of Prussia Orchid Show in February 2006.

About two months ago it developed crown rot. This is an infection of the plant by which water remaining in the crown (the bit where all the leaves join together) carried an organism which caused the plant to die from the center out. I have never heard of a plant being rescued from this. ALL the leaves died, and we were left with only a group of very healthy roots.

STM decided, as an experiment, to see what would happen if we just kept watering it. Since one orchid more or less in the bathtub doesn't really make that much difference when you have about 40 of them (I told you it was an obsession!) I didn't mind. Also, since it was most likely me that caused the crown rot (orchids usually only get it when there is too much water on them, especially late in the day or at night. The organism that causes it is most active at night. This is why responsible orchid growers will usually water in the morning, to allow the plant's upper bits to dry completely before nightfall.) I felt a bit guilty.

About a week and a half ago we were spritzing the orchids, which we do almost every morning, when I noticed a new growth on the roots (!!). I immediately called STM over to see, and we both could tell it was growing a keiki!!!! A keiki is a baby orchid which normally grows from a fully mature orchid which, for reasons of it's own, chooses to reproduce by cloning rather than through seeds. Phals have this tendency, but I've never seen one keiki off of the roots. I have another keiki which grew off of another plant in the usual way - the plant put out a flower spike with no buds and then the baby grew at the end.

So now we have a new baby orchid, but one with an adult, mature root system. This is a major advantage, since many keikis die from lack of water when they have an immature root system (once they are detached from the parent plant)

I'm really interested to see where this goes next. And by now you are probably thoroughly sick of orchid talk.