#phalaenopsis But now there are leaves on the upper porti...
2ft to light, direct
5” pot with drainage
Last watered 6 days ago
7
Best Answer
It looks totally normal to me. Orchids are not plants that naturally grow in he ground. They grow their roots on the sides of trees and other vertical surfaces. They will commonly grow roots that go into the air. These are normal and healthy. Don't try to bend them or they might brake. If you want the roots outside of the bark to survive you can keep the orchid in an area with higher humidity. For that you can use humidifiers or group it with other plants
Hi Stacey sounds too me like you've got a spike keiki (offshoot)growing. Congrats🥳. Do you have pictures? In that case your concern is (slightly) warranted. How long you should leave it, depends on the position of the keiki and the health of the mother plant. Because, like you guessed, the keiki, if growing on a spike, has no other access to nutrients and water but the mother and cannot help, but takes a lot of energy - additionally to the bloom.
Because of that, in most cases, best practice is to remove it once the roots are grown enough to sustain itself (1,5-2 inches, the roots to be sure). Then you can remove it carefully from the spike and voila, congrats you have a small little orchid clone.
If it grows low enough on the spike that at some point the roots might reach the medium, you could also just leave it connected btw. It's a perfect clone, meaning that's all a long as that connection remains, the keiki will bloom at the same time as the motherplant, meaning double the blooms at the same time ;)
Because of that, in most cases, best practice is to remove it once the roots are grown enough to sustain itself (1,5-2 inches, the roots to be sure). Then you can remove it carefully from the spike and voila, congrats you have a small little orchid clone.
If it grows low enough on the spike that at some point the roots might reach the medium, you could also just leave it connected btw. It's a perfect clone, meaning that's all a long as that connection remains, the keiki will bloom at the same time as the motherplant, meaning double the blooms at the same time ;)
Ooooh. What a cutie. It is , indeed, a keiki. Very fast up the spike, so what I said before definitely applies. Wait until you have 2-3 roots of big enough size and separate. Would love to tell you "congrats on leveling up with your orchid", but keikis with phals are more a thing of chance and/or distress 😉 there are some that are just genetically very prone to growing them (my mother has one that seems to produce a basal keiki - i.e. one not on the spike but from the base - almost every other year, it seems, for example). In some cases, however, it can be a sign that your orchid is stressed or sees slim chances of long - or short-term survival and tries to reproduce. For example, sometimes the crown got destroyed by pests or the spike damaging it. Or by rot. In that case it can no longer grow new leaves, meaning a keiki is the only chance of survival. Without seeing the whole plant, it is hard to say from afar, however. Could be that your plant just "wanted" to grow it. Just 'cause.
As for Greg, it can be a bit clunky at first. One main thing is, that you want to tag the people you want to address in the comments. Otherwise they might not see your question or advice, because only the original poster will be notified by Greg. I only happened to look after I saw you liked the comment, because I suspected something of the sort 😉 so next time, a sick @MusicalRedmint will do the trick 😉 have fun watching your little one grow
As for Greg, it can be a bit clunky at first. One main thing is, that you want to tag the people you want to address in the comments. Otherwise they might not see your question or advice, because only the original poster will be notified by Greg. I only happened to look after I saw you liked the comment, because I suspected something of the sort 😉 so next time, a sick @MusicalRedmint will do the trick 😉 have fun watching your little one grow