Question
Hello,

I live in London and I have a Phalaenopsis that made me 5 offshoots or keikis, almost two years ago. I am totally inexperienced with orchids and I was afraid I would hurt them if I intervened, so I let them be. The mother plant and the babies did really well, last year all the keikis had flowers. Full blooms that lasted for months. Recently I have decided to plant them, since my son managed to break the spike leading to one of the keikis and that one slowly died. I have used a mix of orchid compost from B&Q (it looks like a mix of medium bark and well, normal compost) and big barks from a specialized online orchid store. I have used their indications to plant the keikis and the mother plant to the letter, getting rid of old and mushy roots and trimming the over-grown roots of the keikis. Unfortunately their guide did not say anything about funcigide, so I havent used any (later I have found cinnamon is good for this purpose). I am wondering if I made everything correctly. I planted the mother plant back in its vase, because many of its roots were mushy and i removed them, and I planted the keikis in 5 inch pots as well, trying to bulk as much compost and bark as possible. On the keikis I left tiny portions of the spikes they belonged to on the mother plant, I was afraid to remove them completely. Unfortunately all their spikes from which they had flowers in the past went brown and woody, so I cut them completely. Will they produce new spikes? If I havent used funcigide, but trimmed their roots, will I need to use something to prevent rotting? I have used transparent pots, so maybe I will get to see some of the roots and intervene if need be.

Thank you very much for any advice you can give me,

all the best,

Dana

Answer
Dana, once the old flower spike turns brown it will not rebloom so you did right in removing those flower spikes. In the future, I recommend that you not cut the roots unless they are mushy (ie dead).  Maybe, that is what you did.  Trimming healthy roots introduces the possibility of a fungal infection getting into the plant and deprives the plant of root material needed to produce new growth.  If you have powdered sulphur or a powdered fungicide (cinnamon might work as well) dip the root end into it before repotting the plant.

Phalaenopsis orchids, including any keikis that have been potted up, will send up new flower spikes at the appropriate time of the year as long as the plant is healthy.  Usually, they rebloom annually at the same time of year.  I would be cautious of your potting mix.  Mixing medium fir bark with compost could result in a more rapid decomposition of the fir bark.  Normally, the tendency is to keep the potting mix more open by mixing the medium fir bark with perlite, charcoal, expanded clay and other ingredients that won't deteriorate rapidly.  That way, when the bark starts to decompose, the inorganic materials will help to allow air to get to the roots while preventing the mix from retaining too much moisture.  Also, the smaller the plant, the finer the potting mix should be.  Use a pot that has lots of drainage holes.

All this advice should be taken in the context of your experience.  It sounds like you have done very well at growing your phalaenopsis.  To the extent possible, keep doing what you were doing as it's difficult to argue with success.