is this a spike or keiki?(weird growth pics)

16 years ago

ok, i got this dend last year out of bloom and i've been doing everything possible to get it to bloom again. over the winter i cut back on watering and also gave it no fertilizer untill i saw new growth in the spring. when it got warm enough i put it outside in almost full sun and began to water more often. just recently i noticed keikis sprouting from and old cane. i was kind of mad, needless to say after after all the trouble i put into this thing(i have yet to get a dend to rebloom for me and was about to give up on them entirely) well just today i noticed what seemed to be a spike coming out of one of these tiny keikis. it really grew fast because i didn't notice it a few days ago. is this possible? here's some pics

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any opinions? it seems impossible b/c it's so small, but i dunno what else it is. see how the other two keikis look normal? i would be thrilled to finally get some flowers out of these dumb things, lol. thanks!

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Comments (6)

yukichan
16 years ago
Odd, it does look a little different from a keiki, but I suspect that's what it is. My dends only seem to bloom in fall, once the temp drops and it starts raining less. Incidentally, I have a dend that cranks out tons of keikis and still blooms in the fall. I've never seen a dend form a spike from midway up the cane like that. Is that bit at the end a swelling or a folded-over leaf?
Sorry, I know I haven't been much help.
junglspy
Original Author
16 years ago
it's actually growing at the tip of an old cane that had bloomed before, there is a bit of the old spike left on it and that's why it looks like it's growing in the middle. also on the tip it really looks like it may be a bud forming. it's hard to tell from the pics b/c they are a little blurry. it doesn't really look like theres any leaves-yet. it's really weird. it's growing so much faster than the other keikis. i'm not sure when this plants blooming cycle is, b/c i got it out of bloom. anyhow i guess only time will tell
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archades, I'm going to jump in here and offer a suggestion or two. I am going to suggest that your keiki paste, whatever it is, apparently has your orchid plants so confused that they don't know what to produce on the nodes of those bloom spikes. The three photos above this show flower spike nodes that have what appears to be undifferentiated tissue growths. The process has probably changed since I was actively involved in tissue culturing orchids, but we would take these growth buds and put them in a jar with a liquid nutrient solution, and place the jar on a rotating wheel. The tissue in the jar would only grow into undifferentiated tissue.....meaning no roots, or leaves, just more green tissue. When the "blobs" of tissue got large enough, they would be removed and carefully picked apart, and placed into more jars and returned to the wheel. A few times like this and you would have literally hundreds or thousands of these pieces of tissue. When we had enough to produce the number of plants we needed/wanted, we would take about 25 pieces and place them in jars with sterile jelled nutrient, seal them and put them on a shelf under lights. As soon as the plants became stationary, they would recognize up and down, and begin to produce roots that would grow down, and leaves that would grow up.....all these little plants would be exact genetic copies of the parent plant.... Clones. I would suggest stopping the keiki paste, and let the things on the bloom spikes grow.....When enough of the hormones have worked their way out of the plants system, perhaps these things will decide to either be plants...kiekies, or more bloom spikes. Its just a suggestion. As for being impatient.....If you can't get past that, perhaps another kind of plant may be worth considering......Orchids: from pollination to seed harvest = about a year, from seed to bloom = at least 7 years when I was in the business. If you can find a source of Phals. fully grown in 3 inch pots, with good growth you can expect blooms in from 1 to 2 years. They just don't grow fast. Hope this helps. Bill
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claritamaria
16 years ago
Hi Junglspy
I just posted pics of my den kei kei's. They never went through a stage like that. Maybe you lucked out and they are bud-lettes? Take a peek and compare.

Clara

Here is a link that might be useful: Den Kei Kei's
wetfeet101b
16 years ago
Its a "spikeiki"! lol.
Sometimes orchids get confused due to either environmental or chemical disruptions just at the moment in time when they are deciding to grow a keiki or a spike. The result is a mutated spike/keiki combination.
Depending on which component is more dominant, you may get a tiny keiki that has a blooming spike. Or a spike with leaves only.
I have seen a dendrobium picture some time ago that had a long spike that only produced one leaf at the tip.

It would be interesting what your new growth ends up with.
turkeytaker
16 years ago
It's a spike-ish. It even looks like little buds are forming on the end. My monster dend does this occasionally, but the tiny, three budded spikes usually die before blooming.

I've found that it's usually a sign that the plant has been stressed, since my monster didn't start throwing those until it started recovering from the baking I gave it a year or so ago.

Maybe you'll get lucky and get a keiki or blooms. :)

Stacy
junglspy
Original Author
16 years ago
i think you could be right about it being stressed. i think it may have gotten too much sun outside. i have such trouble finding the right balance of light for dends. i either give them too much or not enough. i'm really considering throwing in the towel as far as they are concerned, and just stick with the orchids that actually like me, lol. anyways, yeah, it does sorta look like little buds forming. well, i hope i get something! i'll just have to wait it out!

is this a spike or keiki?(weird growth pics)

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is this a spike or keiki?(weird growth pics)

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yukichan

junglspyOriginal Author

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