FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have a phalaenopsis that I really like so I want to clone it. I just ordered some keiki paste. I know the basics of how to apply it, but any other tips for successfully starting a keiki? Currently about 4 of 9 of the flower buds are open.

At what point should I apply the paste? I don't want to wait too long because this plant has always killed off its spike immediately after it finishes flowering. Should I put the paste on all of the nodes? Can it grow & support more than one keiki at once? I read somewhere that cutting the tip of the spike off will help it produce the hormone for keikis naturally as well. Is that true and if I do so will the flowers die faster/immediately?

I found this page which was pretty helpful: http://www.repotme.com/orchid-care/Orchid-Keikis.html

It says apply to nodes 2, 3, & 4 counting up from the base of the spike starting after the last flower has opened. A mature plant can support more than one keiki, but young plants may not be able to. Cutting the tip sounds like it may lower the auxins in the spike, encouraging keikis, but I'm not sure if it will also increase the chance of killing it.

Sorry I missed this post. I'm sure you have already taken action by now. How did it turn out?
I have a small lab where we produce various plants in good numbers, and have gotten really good at cloning phalaenopsis. For us, its quick and inexpensive. In the future, let me know if we can help.

Thanks nicszabo. I could still use your advice. It's turning out kind of bizarre! For a while it just looked like a nub and I couldn't tell what it was going to be and then it seems like it decided to turn into a branch, but with odd looking, fleshy nodes on it. It's also twice as thick as the original spike. One of the nodes was tongue shaped so I tried putting some keiki paste on that one thinking maybe I put it on the main spike too early. Now that node is growing too...maybe into another branch.

Keiki paste can be hit or miss; we only use in-vitro culture. You may have waited too long to attempt initiation. Young spikes where only a few flowers have opened are best. Typically you want to remove the bract covering the node before you apply the paste, use caution, if the actual node is damaged... game over. Keep the plant warm, don't allow much of a cool down at night.
Looks like it is forming another flower spike, but still could produce a plantlet. On the plus side, now you have more chances.
Hope this helps.

nicszabo wrote:You may have waited too long to attempt initiation. Young spikes where only a few flowers have opened are best.

Oh, hmm. I was going off of the link in my second post which said after the last flower opens because that's when the flow of auxins from the meristem, as they describe it, naturally reduces. That made sense of the other thing that I had heard: that cutting the tip of the spike off can help. Is this all incorrect?

nicszabo wrote:Keiki paste can be hit or miss; we only use in-vitro culture.

Do you do this with sections of spike, each with one node? If so, how do you sterilize them? I've only tried once, but got contamination and I think I killed the spikes in the process of sterilizing. I just stuck them in my flytrap media of 1/3 MS with full vitamins, which was probably doomed to fail anyway.

nicszabo wrote:Looks like it is forming another flower spike, but still could produce a plantlet.

I've never grown a keiki so I don't know what a plantlet looks like in its earliest stages. I couldn't find any pictures online. I hope I didn't prevent that first node on the new spike from becoming a leaf. It was flat and sticking out as you can see in the picture, but after I added the paste, it started growing like its parent spike had. The bracts are strange because they're so thick and fleshy, normally they're almost paper thin on this plant. The tip of this spike is also starting to look pretty odd. It's sort of becoming artichoke-shaped. Hoping to see something resembling a leaf start growing!

Go to:
http://phytotechlab.com/index.php/technical-info/

Scroll down and look at the right hand column, select the pdf orchidstempropkit.

Read through the protocol. This is exactly how we do it despite the contradictory information you may have read.

IMO, dont buy the "kit" it doesn't contain anything special. Just purchase the components that you need individually.