Hi Alma, I recently went to a grower's talk who addressed this issue. He advised removing keikis from mother phals because they take her energy away. Therefore she may not bloom in the following seasons. You may want to try removing the keikis and potting them up separately.

I don't think that you'll find a problem with potting these up. I have found that phals are forgiving if you repot them when they are in spike, but it is best to do it before the buds are well formed. As far as the keiki, give it a pot of its own. You don't need to wait until it flowers. If it is in spike, as I said, do it before the buds get too far along.

suzabanana, Let me throw out a thought about your "mini" Phals, and their Keiki's and peculiar blooming habits. Look around on the internet for species Phalaenopsis, and see what you find. There are several species close to Phal. that will cross with them, and some of the Phal's that I knew have been found out by the taxonomists, and are no longer officially Phalaenopsis, but look at what you find on the search. The large "dinner plate" hybrid Phals that are flooding the market now are the results of many, many generations of very particular breeding in order to produce these plants. Not too many years ago any of the plants on the shelves of grocery stores today would have been highly awarded in any show. Once the sought after level of bloom perfection was attained, a technique called "cloning" came along, and allowed growers to reproduce any of these plants by the thousands....exact genetic copies of the original plant. There was no other way to do this (other than actually dividing a plant) because of the tremendous genetic diversity of each plant. ( a selfing of any of these plants will produce a Hodge Podge of seedlings with differences in their blooms and plant characteristics) Now the fad seems to be headed toward miniature Phal. plants with nice sized and shaped blooms. Looking at the tremendous diversity of species Phals. available, and the number of crosses that have been made over the years, a search of the "pedigree" or lineage of any registered orchid (the Royal Horticulture Society Is the registration authority, and you can actually trace many hybrid orchids back to the species of origin) will show that many of these species orchids are found in the background of todays hybrids. What all this means is that any given Phal. hybrid may revert back and exhibit a trait from a parent; grand parent; or even a great, great, great, great Grandparent.... Some of these species are highly prone to producing keikis on bloom spikes, or sprouting multiple pups from the base of the plant. I have seen Keikis on blooming spikes that were blooming themselves, and had blooming Keikis on their blooming spikes. It was an amazing plant to be sure. To obtain the new line of mini Phals, I suspect the breeders have gone back to basics, because many of the species are small growing plants. This would mean that there is much less genetic material to "hide" any given trait, so the plants would be much more apt to exhibit an unusual trait like throwing keikis, or strange bloom patterns. In short, I think the characteristics you see in your plant can be traced back to one of its ancestors. Just like we sometimes wonder where our children got their red hair, or that funny shaped nose.....until we one day find a photo of great, great, great grandmother so and so..... Just a thought. Bill

If the plant isn't putting out leaves or roots at the moment it probably is a good time to re pot, I don't think the keiki would be affected. I'm not an expert either especially with phals but if the plant starts a growth / flower cycle it could be another year before you have a chance to re pot again.