Keikis are only really bad from an aesthetic point of view. They make the plant look messy and they take up space that should be occupied by a flower (ie they're a bit of a slap in the face to a grower). Where environment leads to keiki formation it's generally the case that the plant has been provided with conditions more conducive to good growth than good flowering so the plant obviously responds by putting on more growth. Sure, keikis can be produced when the parent is dying but dying orchids will often produce flowers in a final attempt to reproduce so it's not like keikis are indicative of an unhealthy plant (although they're possibly a sign of inappropriate culture). I can't say I've ever noticed any real drag on the parent's health when keikis are left on. By the time the're big enough to have any real detrimental effect on the parent their root system is large enough to support the plantlet whether the keiki is removed or not. You may be left with a tangled mess but everything's still healthy. The main problem I've experienced is trying to remove old keikis when their roots have attached to the parent plant.

Hi, jj. I would leave the keiki as is, and there are several reasons why, but the biggie and #1 is this: Separated , it is a little thing, and in my experience little orchids are a pain in the humph. You have to keep a constant eye on them because they are tiny and delicate and in tiny pots that dry out quickly. Any mistake-- too dry for a day or so, or too wet, or too anything, and the little guys can just die on you. So I would leave it on the mother, and let it get nourishment from her, and have a lot less trouble. It will keep growing, looking better all the time, and if the mother recovers you'll have a terrific big plant with two crowns, capable of putting up multi-spikes and looking glorious. About the ugliness of the way the two are growing: I'm not sure what the problem is aesthetically, with the mother leaning one way and the keiki leaning the other. A sunburned plant is plain ugly no matter which way it's growing. There's no cure for it, except new leaves appearing. As the keiki gets bigger, the plant will look better. If the mother recovers, they should look just fine together like that. The sunburned mother is going to look ugly until she gets new leaves growing. If the crown was destroyed, the only way she can recover is thru keikis. However, if the crown is still there, she can still put out new leaves and recover her looks. Hope this helps some.

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.

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.