When I air-layer my large, old Fiddle Leaf Ficus, I will wrap that wad of sphagnum moss with Saran Wrap and then tie it top and bottom. I want the moss to stay moist for as long as possible. You might want to do that just so you have better control over the evaporation process.

Good luck. I am most interested in seeing what happens.

Thanks I'll do that. I did 4 star magnolia, 1 dog wood,1Kwanza cherry,and 3 climbing hydrangea this past summer with moss and black garbage bags. Thay all did really good.I don't know why I didn't think plastic on the orchid.

When I tried the keiki paste on my phals, I just dabbed it on the bare stalk. Of course it was summer in Florida so the air was very moist all the time anyway. But they all started little plants with no moss.

I think if you wrap that stalk in moss and plastic it will rot. Just my opinion. Orchids need air and put new roots out into air. I think you'd be better to just mist that plant every day and let it do its thing.

Humm, I don't know whether that stem would rot or not. It is a pretty doggone tough structure and nothing like the leaves and roots. As I admitted, I have never done anything like this with an orchid, stem or not, and only air-layer ficus.

take a look if you like
http://www.repotme.com/orchid-...

Yes, the paste in that article KeikiGrow Plus is what I have. I doubt that Rootone powder has the same hormones in it, but it still may work.

The worst that can happen is you might lose the stem. The plant will grow another.

The important factor is that these orchids are epiphytes, so do not root and grow like 'regular' terrestrial plants. They take a lot, if not most of their nutrients from the air, and make their babies without any help, hanging out there in the air, too. When my Phals put out keikis, they produce leaves first, then roots. Again, I'm very worried about the wrapping with moss in view of this.

Elaine, you are dealing WITH already formed keikis, and this is completely different from what Heath is doing. Since I have never really forced keikis to form on these stems, I really don't know anything about what he is doing. Like you, I see the leafed plant form and then the roots follow.

You do know that you can grow seedlings in sphagnum moss, right? I do it all the time and have dozens right now growing in sphagnum moss. I do allow the moss to dry between watering. When these small seedlings get an adequate size, they go into a fine bark medium. I can't really explain, at least not easily, how I know when its time to transfer those seedlings. I have just done it for so long and with so many plants, I "kind of know".

If the stem rots I will just cut it off.Hopefully it won't hurt the mother plant.

How long do you think it will take? I figure about 2 to 3 month's.

The stem, other than (perhaps) producing keikis and new flower stems, has no real use. Many people cut those stems off at the plant when they have finished blooming. Thus, whether the old stem is there or not doesn't help or harm the plant in any way.

I don't know that anyone has done what you are attempting. I certainly have not and thus have no clue how much time you should give it.

I have had keiki's grow of their own accord on a flower stem, and also have 'stimulated' them to grow on flower stems after the flowers are finished, which is kind of what Heath is attempting to do. But I don't think you can 'air layer' an orchid the same way you would a terrestrial plant because orchids form the leaves first, so you need to leave the stem out in the air, and just keep the humidity up around it.

To stimulate keikis to form, I just dabbed the node with the keiki paste, misted the plants daily, and the keikis formed nicely. If the weather hadn't been so hot right after they formed, I'm sure more of them would have survived.

When I said at the beginning that you could 'air layer' an orchid, I thought Heath meant he already had a keiki forming on the stem and just wanted to pin it down into another pot. I'm sure that's what phals do in the wild, to self-propagate. I'd still call that air layering, wouldn't you?

I'd never have the patience to grow a Phal - or any orchid - from a seedling, Ken. Doesn't it take 2 or 3 years to get to a blooming size plant? But since you are growing to sell and have nice greenhouses for controlling your conditions, I can see how you'd want to do that. I'm growing orchids outdoors, for the flowers, and to eventually have some nice big specimen plants to show off.

No, Elaine. Air-layering is a distinct method to propagate plants, and they are generally more woody plants.

Not only do the Phalaenopsis form keikis but also my Oerstedella centradenia do. I am not sure those on the centradenia would be called keikis though. Those "seedlings" form off the reed-stem. Here is a picture of one. I have one of my centradenia coming into bloom now. They were last in bloom last winter/spring.

Elaine, I don't grow many Phal. Though I have a lot of different genera/varieties now, I still love the Cattleya alliance most. The nice thing about the Phal. is that they can/will bloom in 2-3 years rather than in 4-5 for the typical Cattleya. As you have noted, I am in the "business" and often will sell my seedling plants long before I ever see them bloom. Heck, I have had dozens of varieties that I never saw bloom. I sold them all. But I have blooming size ones too, just not nearly as many as the seedlings. I am trying to achieve more of an equal amount of seedlings and blooming size ones, but because I don't have very much space, I will never truly achieve that goal. I can grow 3-6 seedlings in the same space as a single blooming size. Space (or lack of) is everything to me. I am only a hobbyist.

Any baby plant that starts up off an orchid can be called a keiki, I think. I have two keikis on my big Angreacum, one on a Vanda, and a big one on a Epidendrum that I got in Apopka, as well.

We used to propagate rhododendrons in my mother's garden by just pinning a lateral branch down to the ground and letting it take root. That method is certainly called "layering" but maybe not "air layering". If you did that with a phal baby, I don't see why this wouldn't be called air layering, too. Just because you don't have to wrap it in moss and plastic, the plant forms new leaves and roots up in the air on its own, it's not "air layering" ?

Elaine, you and I can argue this point forever. As I previously stated, the air-layering technique I use is more well-suited for woody-plants. The layering you refer to is also used for woody-plants but because the branch is pinned to the ground, it is called ground-layering. Plants naturally ground-layer their branches as well, with no help from us. Where the branches bend enough to touch the ground, these branches can root. This would be called "natural ground-layering". We might help that along by "wounding" the branch and then pinning it to the ground. There are lots of layering techniques and reasons for using these techniques.

To air-layer a plant, there needs to be distinct layers of tissues, namely bark, cambium, phloem, and xylem. I don't know whether those orchid stems even meet that criteria.

In the air-layering technique I use with my Fiddle Leaf Ficus, I will make a cut 1/2 to 3/4 around the circumference of the branch, at a depth that will cut through the bark, cambium, and the phloem layers. I will then make a similar cut 1-2 inches below/above this and then strip off that tissue between the two cuts. The idea is to remove the bark, cambium and phloem in this 1-2" area. I could extend these cuts around the entire circumference of the branch and this would then be called girdling. I am more cautious and don't generally girdle the branches. The idea is to leave the xylem intact. The xylem moves nutrients and water from the roots to the leaves and thus the leaves stay hydrated. Removing those top layers of tissue stimulates the cut area of the branch to grow roots. This area needs to stay moist for roots to form, thus the use of moist sphagnum moss with cellophane wrapping.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

Ok So what Heath is doing is 'air layering' and what I am not understanding is why you need to do what he did with the moss wrapping etc. when the plant will probably make new leaves and roots on that stem anyway. IF it's inclined to.

Ursula's article seems to indicate that there are some types of phals that will make keikis more often than others.

Elaine, you need to direct this to Heath. He's the one that wanted to go this route. I'm like you. I would have never even thought to do it.

I don't know about what Phal. is more prone to keiki formation. Since I never have more than a dozen at any one time, I really don't see keikis that often. Right now I only have one Phal. with a keiki. The centradnia do this all over the place so as far as I can tell, this is a common occurrence with this orchid.

Took some pictures of keikis on my other orchids. I don't have any phals with keikis right now either. That will happen later in the spring when they're finished blooming.
Angreacum with two little ones, a healthy one on my biggest Vanda, and one ready to separate on the Epi

Elaine, or others who have used that keiki paste. Do you just brush the paste on a node-area or lightly score the node and then apply it? I only used it once and don't think I got a single keiki, but perhaps I used it wrong. Here is a NOID Phal. with a tall stem and even a branched stem, but I don't know whether you can see the branch. Should I wait until it is post-bloom to try the paste?