Anyone knows about keikis and making 'front end ' divisions. The keikis are freebies, thank you Orchid God hence referred to as OG, I'll pray 5 times a day to you. Making a front end division causes a loss to your collection. After the division, the plant has one less new lead and next year will probably sport one less flower stem. We'll ignore seed probogation as this not an option for most hobbyists.
There is one way that new plants can be generated that most people ignore. Making a back end division. There are 2 scenarios plus 1:
1) Your plant has been grown continuously from flask. The front end is now growing strong healthy stems, with or without flowers and there are several strong front end bulbs. On the back end we find several small diminutive bulbs, left over from the 'Big Bang' of creation, again thanks to the OG. These bulbs represent the first few years of the plant before it matured and became the adult capable of reproduction. They are so small that they will not be missed by the plant if removed and when I see a plant like that I always remove them. They get planted on their own and the cycle repeats itself as they will sprout and make a new plant. It takes time but its free and does not diminish your collection only adds to it.
2) Your plant came to you after being divided from a mature 'Mom'. The little starter bulbs mentioned above are not there, the first pbulb is a fully grown mature entity. There are a varying number of these back bulbs and the all important front bulbs hopefully with a newly growing lead. Unlike the previous case it takes judgment whether to remove or not remove some of these old back bulbs. A Cattleya type with more than 5 mature growths can tolerate removal of the some of the back. I like to be very conservative here as the plant may initiate and grow a new lead in unexpected direction. But when you have 9 or 10 mature bulbs, multiple new leads all moving in one general direction, removing 2 of the old back bulbs should not affect the plant. Success is not as assured as in the first scenario. This back division will sit there, offended, for a varying amount of time but most will eventually initiate during the next growing season. Some sill not. The new initiation will take a couple of years before its up to speed with shorter stems and obviously no flowers. 2 to 3 years later, praise to OG, you will have a second plant without having lost anything from the first plant. Other plants may offer different scenarios, Oncidiums are worth discussing. Many Oncs are climbers, with new growth pyramiding on top of the old. At the bottom of the heap are a few old dead looking bulbs. Remove them at no or mininal loss to the parent plant, most will initiate and away we go. A big Encyclia with many bulbs will not miss a bulb snatched from the back, again usually they will initiate.
3) Special cases like the Australian Dendrobiums can lead to spectacular success which prompted me to write this thread. Last year, at tremendous expense (I don't want to talk about that) I bought a division of D speciosum Daylight Moon FCC/AOC with 13 adult canes. This is a highly prized plant known by the Speciosum buffs. The point of division from the parent plant was pretty obvious and the last 2 'old' canes looked not only dry, wrinkled and leafless, but did not appear solidly connected to the rest of the plant. I removed them and hung them out on a stick in the same growing area as 'Mom'. There they hung for a year looking sadder by the day. Since they have no roots they cannot absorb water, since there are no leaves no new energy can be created. The bulbs however are a storehouse of energy and yesterday I noticed with joy a new growth on each of them, the OG be praised, I will fast one day to give thanks (beer exepted). I have done this before, not the fasting but dealing with old, hopeless looking backbulbs, and know its a long road back as the new growth will probably be no bigger that a couple of inches, but it will have roots and leaves and away we go. After we have 3 or 4 new growths, I will remove the old ugly backbulb and with appropriate reverence and respect throw it in the trash as it can only perform this miracle once. Those of you who know D speciosums can appreciate the excitement of having 2 new Daylight Moons, one of only 2 FCCs among AU speciosums. They will make valuable trades or I may recapture some of the initial outlay. One other thing to be vary off is that 'Mom' may initiate in both directions and the state of the divided plant and the shape and health of the to be removed backbulbs need to be carefully evaluated. The 11 remaining leads of the parent have a strong new initiation at the growing end and did not appear to have suffered from the loss of the 2 backbulbs.
The bottom line is that the back end of the plant is often ignored at the owner's loss.
Nick
highjack
richardol
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