Kenni,
Thanks for the good news. I didn't know about that.
Joanna

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
In our experience, that keiki will also bloom sooner, still attached to
"mom," than if it had been removed and potted up "on its own." When mom
and
child both bloom at the same time, it's a really great display. Kenni

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:bjhZe.2086$211.1301@trnddc08...
I've got to brag:

My phal equestris has a magnificent keikie, which it developed about a
year
ago. I have opted to keep the keikie on the flowerspike and not attempt
to
pot it. It now has nine roots with the total root length exceeding 30
inches
and the longest of the roots being 6 inches or more in length (hard to
measure since the roots curl quite a lot). The roots are really healthy
despite being completely aerial without any medium). The keikie has 4
leaves
with a leaf span of 5 inches. And now the mother plant has started
growing
a
new flower spike -- it last stopped flowering in the end of April, after
having flowered for 9 months. This upcoming flowering season will be the
mother plant's 3rd flowering season (it keikied after the 2nd one). I
still
remember when the mother plant was a keikie itself, snipped off of Al's
'mother of all equestris' in June 2003 (so 2+ years ago).

Aren't equestris magnificent?

In addition to the main purpose of this post (shameless bragging and
excitement over an orchid that is really doing well), this is also a
reminder to newbies: when you hear that a keikie can be separated from a
mother plant once it's total root length is 3" or 4" total, it's worth
keeping in mind that there is no need to separate a keikie at this
time --
as long as both mother plant and keikie continue to thrive, why fix it
if
it
ain't broken? And a vigorous keikie kept dangling on a flower spike is a
really neat sight!

Joanna