Keep in mind that mine are always grown inside other than when I have given them late fall shock treatment.
@Ursula - I don't recall - I can tell you where I bought my Commiphora neglecta seed, but not the paste. It is Keiki Power Pro and I bought it on the internet. I think it was here:
http://www.keikipowerpro.com/o...
While I recall that it was around 12 $, a container lasts a long time for a hobbyist.
@dyzzypyxxy - I live in St. Joseph Missouri Zone 5B/6. My orchids are always inside in the summer. On a couple of occasions, I took them out to a screen porch in late fall to expose them to very cool weather - late fall shock treatment. This can help induce blooming.
@drdawg says:
"When a stem remains viable, as often as not it will re-bloom. If a stem forms a keiki, will that stem also bloom? Or has that stem now transferred its "energy" into keiki formation rather than flowers, for evermore?"
In my experience over several years, if keiki paste is not used, a viable stem (i.e. healthy and fully green) might rebloom maybe 25 % of the time. That was my experience before using the paste over ~ 2 years. Until I started using the paste, I did not have any Phals make a keiki.
Using paste, less than 10 % or so made an added bloom and keiki on the same stem.
By a factor of maybe 2 to 1, using the paste causes bloom rather than keikis.
I now have 3 basal keikis. I did not put any paste there cause they are not located where a bloom stem was.
The last part of your question, I don't know.
Getting too deep into the genetics. But I do have a hunch - see below.
One thing I do know is that if a Phal does a terminal bloom, it nearly always makes a basal keiki on its own.
Hunch. My hunch is that keikis are a survivor mechanism as the keiki is a 100 % clone of Mama. Seeds OTOH are reproduction mechanisms.
One other note - I have never had a keiki fall off and perish. But I did have what is essentially the same thing. Stem turned brown below the keiki and I cut it off and potted it. Its roots were not developed well enough and it perished.
Almost all of my Phals bloom around the same time - Feb or so start. They then bloom for 3 - 6 months.
One more cautionary note. Do not apply keiki paste to a reblooming stem. Give the plant a rest!
Hope this info is helpful.
