How to Grow Baby Orchids

For Vietnamese instructions click here.

Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste is a specially formulated blend of hormones and vitamins that will convince your orchid to produce a baby orchid clone or extra flower stalk... naturally! It's super simple to use and a little bit of paste goes a long way. By using keiki paste you can grow your collection and enjoy more flowers.

Why does Keiki Paste work? 

Keiki paste includes several different cytokinin hormones that promote cell division and are added to lanolin which won't wash off while watering. When you add it to an orchid node the node will typically (but not always) result in a keiki which is an exact clone of the mother orchid or a new flower stalk.

Materials Needed:

• One box of Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste
• Tweezers, toothpicks, or long fingernails to reveal node

Instructions:

First we need to locate a node on the orchid flower stem. If you run your hands along the stalk you'll feel a bump every couple inches. These bumps are the nodes and they look kind of like joints where the stalk merges together. There are several nodes on each flower stem and each node should work with keiki paste. In my experience nodes closer to the base of the plant are more likely to result in  a keiki while nodes closer to the flowers are more likely to result in a new flower stalk so choose one, two (or three) nodes based on what your ideal outcome is.

Before adding the paste we first need to prep the node. Each node has a little bit of thin plant tissue (called a bract) covering it up kind of like a sock. The bract needs to be pushed down or removed before the paste is applied.

Use a tooth pick, tweezers or even your clean fingernails to peel off the bract. It might feel weird peeling off something on your plant, but it's just a little bit of protective tissue. You won't hurt your plant. When your done peeling you might see a bright or light green dot underneath. This dot is the node! If you don't see the dot, don't fret. You are still in the right location.

Next apply the Keiki Paste using an included disposable cotton swab. Dab a pea sized amount of paste on each node.

After applying the paste continue watering and caring for your orchid as before. It takes a few weeks before the paste starts working. After a couple of weeks you should begin to see some growth. Sometimes I'll carefully take a toothpick to push aside the paste and see if something is growing!

After a few more weeks you will have a better idea of whether you will get a new flower stalk or a new baby orchid.  A baby orchid quickly shows a couple of leaves while a flower stalk looks like a tiny fist 

A baby keiki should be left on the mother orchid until 2 to 3 roots grow 1/2 inch long.