I think you might have a keiki from a Dendrobium, not a phal. I could wrong though. I have only been growing for three years. Generally, you are supposed to remove the keiki from the main plant with sterile pruners or a sharp knife. For your keiki, this should where the top and the bottom canes meet. Then you would pot the keiki up in its own small pot (just big enough to hold the roots and keep the plant from falling over) with the media of your choice (bark mixed with sphag moss or what have you). I would like to hear what others think about the long root that has been growing in water. If it is put into bark now, will it die?

Sorry it took me so long to acknowledge your contributions to this post - the last few days have been pretty hectic. Calvin, thank you for your words of encouragement. It's been three weeks since I first started to apply the rooting hormone. The second leaf is now beginning to fade. If the last leaf can hang on there for another three weeks, the plant may just make it. And if not, it will be part of the total learning experience. Howard, I read your comments very carefully. I am quite mystified as to why there was such a total disintegration of the root system on this phal., which produced such an abundance of flowers over so long a period. Or perhaps that was part of the reason. I suspect it was rootless for quite a while before I noticed. It couldn't possibly have been due to lack of light - it was given four hours of dappled morning sunlight EVERY day from mid-May until September. This summer was particularly hot - inside temperatures were a steady 30 C day and night for most of August and there was no breeze coming from the east (and, unusually, very little even from the west). I provided all the orchids with rudimentary humidity trays. Perhaps the bottom of the pots stayed damp for too long ?? Anyhow, based on my experience with the one phal that has already survived two summers, all the phals have now been removed from the humidity tray, and the root systems are being monitored carefully. All leaves are a healthy mid-green. As far as the Catt. alliances are concerned, they definitely need more light. I should have realised this from observation of the growth habit of the Epicatt after I moved it to the east window. Before that it produced its first rebloom. After the move, it produced progressively three new leads, but instead of developing into one leaf and a sheath, as before, each lead grew two new leaves.. I thought that this was perhaps its normal growth habit, and that it would produce blooms from a new growth in early spring, but it seems that I was mistaken. So,Phalpal, Jodi and Sarah I hope you've learnt something from my mistakes. I certainly have!! Judy

Hi arthurm2015, I'm from Romania and we currently have a hot summer with occasional rainy day. We are in a mountain area so the humidity in the air is pretty high even indoors. I water my orchids once a week and the pot has drainage holes (one simple transparent pot with drainage holes, and the white "mask" pot with no holes). I never leave water on the bottom of the mask pot just to make sure the roots don't get to much humidity and rot. I did notice on this pot that there are some small flies coming out from the soil, it may be from the mother plant that I think might be sick. Do you know what to do with these flies (small insects with 2 wings)? I don't want to contaminate my other orchids that are sitting just next to this one.

I have two kiekis right now that I want off the plant, one for an OS friend, the other for the raffle table at a later date. Thx for posting the idea.