Penny, Yes, that's a keiki. I've got a few on a SOGO GRAPE that's doing the same thing, although mine are much smaller. My plans: Wait until the roots are 2"-3" long, carefully remove the plantlet (maybe even cut a little below, 1/2", of the existing stalk) and plant it in a small pot. Mine is growing is spagh also, so the keiki will also go in spagh. I'll watch the new plant carefully for a few weeks/months and keep it with the rest of my phals. Would expect blooms in maybe 1-2 years on the new plant, next bloom cycle on the mother plant. In fact my GRAPE is sending out a new spike and has 3 kiekis on 2 other older spikes, seems to handle it just fine. Hope this helps and good luck, Bob

John, That sure is a happy plant!! My Ctsm tenebrosum likes to do that, although I have no idea what makes them do this. I agree with Mark about possibly wrapping sphag around or under the roots of that highest keiki once the roots have some more size. They'll be fine as is for a while. And then, IMO, those others are so close to the bottom, that I would just pot the plant until about midway of that large yellow circle that you have directly above. The lower plants will grow up out of the media, and the higher plant roots will grow down. Wow, whatever you did, do it again next year! And then trade some to your favorite ctsm pals ;) But they're all young enough to just let them go for now. And don't worry if the parent pbs get sucked dry as the babies grow - there are a lot of plantlets and they may take a toll on the parent pbs. Carolyn

Here is a current picture of my d.kingianum in flower, and as soon as it's warm enough, I'd like to swap a keiki of this for another keiki of the same species. Thanks, Rick in CT

Sounds like we have some Bay Area folks here. I lived in Hayward for about 25 years (1978-2004) then retired here in Kauai, HI in Nov of 2004. Kept orchids and Plumerias for 5 years in Hayward, and have been growing them since. IMO, Dendrobiums are the easiest to grow of all the orchids and they pretty much take care of themselves with minimum care. Most people I know grow either Dens or Phals for this reason. More challenging are the Cattleyas in which I have about 80 of them. But since the discussion here is about Keikis and Dens, I will try and keep the subject to that. I usually wait until Keikis are about 6-7 inches in length with plenty of roots before I pull them away from the mother plants. Then I will start them in a 4"-8" (depending on what I have laying around) clay pots filled with mostly coarse perlite and a bit of sphagnum moss. Water them once a week and watch them grow. Fertilize every couple of months. You need to have patience when growing new keikis because it may take a while for it to get big and they will, depending on the pot they're in and their type. And they love to be tied to a tree trunk with some sphagnum moss and angel hair hanging on them. Below are pictures of Dens (keikis with the mother plant) and pots of: most of which were started from keikis. I don't know if I can show pix in sets here, so I may have to create more comments to post all the pix. We'll see! First, the mother plants. I have a whole row of these beside the sidewalk leading to my front door. Next kekies still attached to mother plants: More to follow.