June 28, 2007

Keikis {Plant 1}

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Two keikis appeared on the older of the two flowering spikes somewhere late last year. When the flowering spike died (turned browned and dried up) possibly due to a drastic decrease in watering during the wetter months, the keikis were removed and pushed into the sphagnum moss surface with the mother plant. At the time of removal, the keikis only had one leaf (~ 1 inch long) each. Also, the bigger keiki only had a young root starting to break through the epidermis of the main stem while the smaller keiki had none at all.

They had just grown their second leaf in the recent 2-3 months. An attempt to grow them on the diatomite surface together with the mother plant in the 120507 remount failed as water uptake by the keikis became a problem. The roots were hardly in contact with the diatomite and they dry up too fast after waterings to allow sufficient time for water absorption. Hence, they were removed from the basket a week after the remount and planted in pots of pure diatomite indvidually with daily waterings in the morning.

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