Our New Curiosity

I'm wondering about the spots on the leaves.....that's like runoff buildup right? Do they ever go away after time or is there a gentle way to clean them up

I use a wet paper towel and wet q-tips to clean the leaves of plants with excessive water/fertilizer spots. I gently hold (read; support) the leaf in the palm of my left hand and with a wet paper towel wipe "with the grain" of the leaf with my right. It sometimes takes a few days of doing this to get all of it off because *gentle* is the key word.
Now, with that said, in this case I would leave well enough alone. The spikes are unbelieveably tender and break very easily. I broke one just the other day when the end of the watering can hit a spike. Best to leave it as it is and worry about the "look" later.
Patience, it's something you must have with any plant but especially with orchids. LOL I only have a couple of years experience with orchids so I'm sure others will have better/different advice.
PM me any time and I'll try to help.

Can't wait to see what it is! I love mysteries and have a number of Phal. seedlings that a year or so from now I'll see what the crosses look like!

Al

If those are equestris, they're big plants!

I'm suprised no on has commented on the "double" plant. If that's a basal keiki all grown up, it's huge! It also has multiple spikes and the parent has at least one spike. And there's a third plant in the pot, to boot!

The common wisdom with Phals is to remove any keikis when they have roots at least 2" long. That keiki is as large as the parent plant! I wonder if the effort to support so many flower spikes will endanger the parent. If you do remove it, do it before the spikes develop anymore (now would be the time, or after blooming. But after could be a while and the plant might not be able to support all the blooms on parent and keiki.)

Do any Phal species throw off stolons? I certainly haven't run across any. Or is this simply a keiki factory (equestris are known for that) and the keikis share their pot with mama...

What do the Phal species growers think?

McJulie

Piper,

Really we should? Here's the thing, we've never been successful with taking the kekei's off. Here's a closer picture of the base if that helps....

Attached Images

 

I'd agree with all the above.. narrow leaves, multiple spikes and all. Interesting pot - have to wonder if the adult plant was damaged and produced kikis or if it was just a long forgotten community pot?

As to getting rid of the hard water/salt marks on the leaves... I've always used lemon juice and a good paper towel. Never had any adverse affects doing this. Hard water spots (no pun intended) sometimes need a couple of applications. I take a lemon, cut it in half and squeeze the juice onto a small (quarter or slightly larger) area of a folded over several times paper towel. I then rub the leaves gently... then rinse. If you leave the lemon juice on the leaves w.out rinsing and use a lot.. it leaves a VERY SHINY result (lemon oil?) I've never used one of the commercial cleaners or leaf shines? Anyone have experience with these?

Remember to use a new paper towel on each orchid/ don't want to transmit anything from plant to plant.