Question
I have a den, my very first orchid, the plant that took all the "learning curve" abuse, my heart and my soul.  Well she has babies (keikis). I have read your earlier answer about the unknown type of orchid.  Mine is a dendrobium, and the tag that came with the plant says "orchid dendrobium", so I cannot tell you more specific the type.  There are 7 canes in the pot. 2 of the canes have a keiki and another cane has 2 growing on it, 3 total. The orchid is planted in all bark.  I water 2 times a week and fertilize once a month.
The babies have been growing for about 6 weeks now and the biggest of the 3 is maybe 2 inches from the cane to the top of the new growth and the smallest is almost an inch.  Some of the new babies have little, tiny roots forming on the canes.  

My questions are: (1) How long do the roots have to be before I remove them from the cane? (2) How do I remove them without damaging them or the mother plant? (3) Because dens like to be bound to each other will I take all the babies at the same time and re-plant them in a 4" pot?   (4) Should I just wait until Feb/March to remove the keikis? When the growing should start to slow.  (5) Will this jump start my plant and maybe next year I will get some blooms?

Hope this is enough information.  And thank you for all your help.
Pam  

Answer
Hi Pam,

Yes, you gave enough information for me to tell you what to do with your dendrobium orchid plant keikis.  Also, it sounds like it might be an evergreen type.  

To begin, leave the keikis on the mother until late winter or early spring and the roots are at least 2 inches long.  When you see the keikis roots form a green tip, that will indicate that they are coming out of winter dormancy and ready to grow.  To remove them, hold the base of the keikis between your fingers then gently rock it back and forth.  While doing this, gently tug outward so there will be a tiny gap between it and the mother then snip the keiki off, being careful to not injure the keiki or Mom.  I usually use an industrial grade single-edged razor blade for this purpose.  Industrial grade blades are the type used to scrap paint, etc. and can be found at most paint and hardware stores.  

But before removing them, it would be a good idea to have your potting materials handy.  I would suggest getting the smallest pots you can find to pot each keiki into rather than putting them all into one pot.  There is nothing wrong with putting them into one pot but then you will have only 2 dendrobiums rather than 4.  (grin)  

I would be surprised if the keikis were to produce blooms one year after being separated from their mother, it probably will be 2 or 3 years for them to be mature enough to bloom.  But you might get lucky!  I hope so!!  

By the way, the reason your dendrobium produced keikis is because you probably are feeding it too much fertilizer.  Dendrobiums do not require lots of fertilizer to grow and bloom, use about 1/8 the amount suggested on the fertilizer container.  Also, reduce watering from mid fall through winter as the dendrobium goes into semi-dormancy.  Keeping it too wet in winter may cause the roots to rot.  

Hope this has been helpful.  Good luck and good growing.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.