Let's Check In On Our Keiki Growing Trial ..

Well, let me think about where I left off.. Oh yes! It was 15 days ago. I embarked on a new propagation expedition. More simply put, I wanted to try my hand at growing new Orchids. One of my Phal's was done blooming and instead of tossing out the old bloom stems, I cut them off, sanitized some fern moss, and carefully placed the stems into a sealed container. All this and more, while Molly got lazy on me and just stood by at great lengths. hehe.

Here is a link to Part 1 of this growing Keiki DIY project;

Growing New Orchids - Keiki DIY Project - Part 1

PART 2

An Update On The Progress ..

Okay! First off with the lid in order to take a peak inside. I could feel the humidity within the container, as I removed the cap.. sort of weird, but expected given all of that moisture hanging along the walls. No strange smells, insects, or other oddities coming from within either. That's always a good thing.

At first glance, the stems seem to look nice and green. The moss on top looks healthy and the stems look solid. I'll be able to tell more once I pull them all out from the mossy depths of the tall, plastic container they are currently trapped in.

I give the moss a good look over as I pull it out. I want to make sure that it is not decaying too quickly, and that there is no mildew or rot going on. I did sanitize the moss with a 10% bleach to water rinse. Not strong enough of a solution to kill the resilient moss, but strong enough to kill bacteria, insects, and other good-for-nothings.

So far so good .. The first two stems I found look great! No visible keiki to be found, BUT the stems look nice and green. That means they are still alive and retaining moisture. I am happy with these results. I'll get more in depth in a bit.

First, the BAD news. Total survival success was NOT achieved. Yes, we have two lovely stems here, but the third (pictured below) suffered and became my first casualty. The stem is somewhat translucent and beginning to decay. Somewhere along the way, the stem died of an unknown cause. It could very well be bacteria related, or possibly the end of the stem was not cut very well, or the end sat too low in the container, thus touching the pooling water at the bottom. Whatever the case, it has to be thrown out so it does not cause harm to the remaining stems.

Here's a closer look at the good stems.. The lenticels (breathing holes in the stems) look great. They are very noticeable and appear healthy. The nodes on each of the remaining two stems look good as well; green and solid.

It has only been 15 days.. and as a reminder, I am NOT using Keiki Paste (rooting hormone). Given the relatively short period of time that has passed since I started this adventure, I would not expect noticeable results or new keiki growth yet. My expectation of seeing 'Something', would be at the four week mark. I hope at least.

But take a look at this .. Is there SOMETHING going on here??!! Look closely at the two nodes. The top node in the photo appears to be slightly swollen, and the bottom node appears to have some separation. It almost looks like a new leaf may be trying to reveal itself. Not sure about this, but I WILL keep my eye on these two nodes during future inspections.

That Concludes Part 2 of Growing Keiki ..

Hopefully I have some exciting news to share with you when Part 3 rolls around. Right now I am thinking about checking things out again in another two weeks. If something is happening with these two nodes above, then it should be noticeable in another two weeks. If not, then oh well.

For now, Molly and I will just have to find a comfy place to chill out and wait.

Hello @ewkaw! I almost remembered to tag you in this post :-/ I had to go back and edit - lol. I forgot I promised to do it.

“Maybe you think you’ll be entitled to more happiness later by forgoing all of it now, but it doesn’t work that way. Happiness takes as much practice as unhappiness does. It’s by living that you live more. By waiting you wait more. Every waiting day makes your life a little less. Every lonely day makes you a little smaller. Every day you put off your life makes you less capable of living it.”
― Ann Brashares, Sisterhood Everlasting

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