These are not Keikis, just babies off the mother plant.

**chris1948** · April 6th, 2016, 07:40 PM

Some of my Phals have these which are baby plants growing off of the mother plant. These in the photos are only two examples. Of course I understand that these are not Keikis so can't be treated as such and before they can be separated from the mother plant they'd need to have roots. My question is, how do I get them to root? And, 'if' I can get them to root how are they removed from the mother plant?

**Chris in Hamilton** · April 7th, 2016, 04:54 AM

In the second image it appears that the main lead has died. The old growth looks bad but has 2 or 3 growths coming from it. Those will get roots and it shouldn't be too long. When they have 3-4 you can cut them from the old plant (right at their base) and pot them up. Wait a day or two after cutting to let the wound dry. Its kind of hard to see what is happening with the 1st one. I'd leave it alone if all the of the leads are green. Couple of other things I've noticed with your pictures. In the 1st one the plant is nice and green and looks the way it should. In the second the plant looks a little dehydrated.Think that is because the mix in the 2nd one is much coarser than the 1st. If you are watering all of your plants at the same time and they are living under the same conditions than you should try to keep them in the same mix. The lead dying out like the 2nd one is usually caused by leaving water standing in there too long. Hope that helped and sorry for being so long winded.

**PaphMadMan** · April 7th, 2016, 05:37 AM

Why would you separate them? A multi-crown Phal like this can have many spikes at once for quite a show.

**chris1948** · April 7th, 2016, 08:31 AM

Chris, here's a photo of the complete nice and green plant. Good catch about the potting medium. The first is with Miracle Gro potting bark which I really need to change out as I'm sure it's deteriorated but I need to wait until it finishes blooming. The other one has already been repotted into Rexius bark of medium coarseness using a clear 6.6" plastic pot. So you think I should water those that are in the new medium more frequently than those in the old?

**Chris in Hamilton** · April 7th, 2016, 10:39 AM

In general the coarser your medium the more you will need to water if the plants are the same species/hybrids. What Kirk said about having multiple crowns is quite true. I wouldn't cut any plants with multiple growths unless they are very ugly. Those are really nice branched spikes on the flowering plant! You should never let Phal.'s dry completely. If the roots look pale grey they probably need water. If they start to shrivel then you've waited too long.

**chris1948** · April 7th, 2016, 10:46 AM

Thanks Chris, then instead of every 8 days or so of feeding/watering I'll go to 5 days for the ones in the new coarser medium (if that sounds right) and stay with the other schedule for the others until I can get them repotted which may take awhile as they just keep on blooming. I'll need to setup two different logs now.

**sciencegal** · April 7th, 2016, 12:29 PM

Babies growing off the mother plant are considered keikis - aren't they? Keiki is Hawaiian for baby. If left on the mother long enough they will grow roots.