Question
QUESTION: I have had my orchid for close to a year now, it almost died about a month after I got it, I was completely clueless to care for it. Now I have researched so much about them that I nursed the poor flower back to health. Anyway, recently it bloomed two flowers and were on their for quite a while, I moved to a new house and must have stressed it out or something because both flowers wilted a little and fell off, I was completely traumatized! Anyway I have settled in and been caring for my plant for the past couple weeks, now on the sprout that had the two flowers before has budded again, and grown 2 new smaller leaves, BUT it also has sprouted 3 new little (what looks like) stems. Is this normal??? I didn't know they were supposed to have so many stems. (Or are they roots :O  ) should I be repotting it now? the two bigger leaves that were originally there, look like they are not getting enough nutrients, but I fertilize once a month, and water when I am supposed to, is there something wrong with my flower?? How should I go about this change, and will my plant with the bud actually flower? How long does it usually take for a bud to flower??
Thanks for any help you can give me. I wish I had a photo to show you!

ANSWER: Cailee, I assume you have a phalaenopsis or moth orchid, but that is a guess.  You need to repot your plant, if you haven't done so. They need to be repotted after each flowering in fresh orchid potting mix. Old potting mixes tend to restrict the flow of air to the roots and keep the root zone too wet causing root rot.  When roots rot, the leaves they support will not survive.  First, purchase a bag of orchid potting mix. This should be a fir bark based potting mix.  Also obtain a pot with lots of air holes in the botton and/or sides.  Soak a portion of the potting mix while you are unpotting your plant.  Rinse the roots on your unpotted plant and remove any roots that appear to be collapsed or mushy before repotting in the new pot. As you add fresh potting mix to the new pot, tap the pot from time to time to allow the fresh potting mix to settle in about the roots.

From your description, it sounds like you have a keiki growing on your flower spike.  This is a new small plant and grows from a node (joint) in the flower spike. This is not uncommon.  Both leaves and roots can appear.  When the leaves are two inches or more in length, you may separate the keiki from the old flower spike and pot it up separately as a new plant.



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QUESTION: Hi again, about the Keiki, the leaves aren't directly attached to this new stem, or maybe they are but they are not visible, and the one leaf is about an inch and a half and the other one is maybe 3cm, if that still sounds like a keiki then how do I go about separating it when the time comes?

Answer
Sounds as if the keiki has not matured enough for separation.  When it gets large enough you should be able to grasp it between thumb and forefinger near where it joins the flower spike and twist it a couple of times and it should separate from its parent.  If that fails to work, you may use a clean razor blade to separate it from the flower spike. Both leaves and roots need to separate from the flower spike.