How to Reproduce Phalaenopsis

Select a healthy Phalaenopsis plant that is in full bloom that you would like to reproduce. Enjoy the flowers until they fade and the last one shrivels up and falls off.

Cut the flower stalk with a sterile razor blade about 1/4-inch above the top node. Nodes are the small, triangular-shaped green leaves (bracts) on the flower stalk right below where the lowermost flower was.

Place the Phalaenopsis in an area that is dimmer than its normal growing area. After a few weeks, one or more of the bracts might start to swell and may develop small leaves or roots. It doesn't happen every time. Sometimes, the upper bract will produce another flower spike instead, or just wither and die.

Place the Phalaenopsis with the developing keiki in its normal growing area. Let the keiki develop attached to the flower spike for the next 14 to 26 weeks, or until it has developed two leaves and a couple of roots about 2 or 3 inches long.

Cut the flower stalk with a sterile razor blade about 1 inch away from the fully developed keiki to remove it from the mother plant.

Fill a small pot about halfway with your favorite orchid potting mix. Choose a pot that the keiki roots will fit into without bending and is about 1 inch wider in diameter than the leaf-span of the keiki. This will allow room for a year's growth. Use a standard fine, medium or seedling-grade orchid potting mix.

Plant the keiki in the new pot, then fill in potting mix around the roots to keep it secure. They usually only have a couple short roots that easily fit into the pot. The base of the lowermost keiki leaf should be just above the surface. It is OK if a few roots stick out of the pot and are exposed to the air.

Water the new Phalaenopsis and care for it in the same way as the mother plant. It will take the new plant about a year and a half to two years to bloom and you should repot every year for the first few seasons.