Some of you may recall that I once asked about a phal schilleriana that has
only one leaf left and that developed a spike. I was advised by someone here
to try using keiki grow, and I even bought it, but alas the spike is so thin
that I did not know how to go about peeling the node, and so I did not try
the keiki paste.

I let it flower, since I figured that this is probably it's last effort, and
might as well let it go out with a bang. Today the first flower opened, and
it's badly mutated. It looks to me like its lip fused with the two lateral
sepals, so it only has a dorsal sepal, 2 petals, and one lower sepal-lip
thingie. I generally like peloric Phals, but this stress-caused mutation is
a sad sight. I don't really think that it will get better, but I am
reluctant to throw it out while there is that one healthy looking leaf.
Still hoping for a miracle, I guess.

Fortunately I have a lot of healthy Phals and many of them are in flower or
in spike, so in general I am pleased with my collection's performance, but I
still can't help being a bit sad about this one.

It's just a seedling really, I got it as a seedling in October 2003 at the
NCOS show in DC. By March 2005 it had already lost all but one of its
leaves, probably due to cold -- I only later found out that schilleriana is
even more cold sensitive and so are seedlings, so a schilleriana seedling is
likely to fare poorly in temperature where other Phals are still ok. Then
this one-leafed seedling hung on to its life for the last year, and I kept
hoping that it would still pull through somehow, but now I don't have much
hope left for it anymore.

Joanna

I was one who recommended te keiki paste. As long as the leaf and stem are
still good, I'd still give it a try for the practice if nothing else. The
3rd bud up usually gives the best results. With tweezers or good fingernails
you can start at the peak of the shield and try to tear off 1/2 of the
pyramidal shield tissue. You'll easily see the bud underneath. Then take off
the other half. Or you can try to take hold of one corner of the base of the
pyramid and pull straight across to remove the entire shield at once. I
think that's harder. Then with a toothpick or similiar sized instrument,
smear on a very thin layer of the paste (you shouldn't be able to see the
paste when you're done). Neatness doesn't count. Et voila, you're done.
You'll notice within a week if something is going to happen or not. Good
luck.
Gary

"J Fortuna" <joanna [at] REMOVEfortunabujard.com> wrote in message
news:TkFKf.16211$dO2.9485 [at] trnddc07...
> Some of you may recall that I once asked about a phal schilleriana that
> has only one leaf left and that developed a spike. I was advised by
> someone here to try using keiki grow, and I even bought it, but alas the
> spike is so thin that I did not know how to go about peeling the node, and
> so I did not try the keiki paste.
>
> I let it flower, since I figured that this is probably it's last effort,
> and might as well let it go out with a bang. Today the first flower
> opened, and it's badly mutated. It looks to me like its lip fused with the
> two lateral sepals, so it only has a dorsal sepal, 2 petals, and one lower
> sepal-lip thingie. I generally like peloric Phals, but this stress-caused
> mutation is a sad sight. I don't really think that it will get better, but
> I am reluctant to throw it out while there is that one healthy looking
> leaf. Still hoping for a miracle, I guess.
>
> Fortunately I have a lot of healthy Phals and many of them are in flower
> or in spike, so in general I am pleased with my collection's performance,
> but I still can't help being a bit sad about this one.
>
> It's just a seedling really, I got it as a seedling in October 2003 at the
> NCOS show in DC. By March 2005 it had already lost all but one of its
> leaves, probably due to cold -- I only later found out that schilleriana
> is even more cold sensitive and so are seedlings, so a schilleriana
> seedling is likely to fare poorly in temperature where other Phals are
> still ok. Then this one-leafed seedling hung on to its life for the last
> year, and I kept hoping that it would still pull through somehow, but now
> I don't have much hope left for it anymore.
>
> Joanna
>
>

V_coerulea wrote:
> I was one who recommended te keiki paste. As long as the leaf and stem are
> still good, I'd still give it a try for the practice if nothing else. The
> 3rd bud up usually gives the best results. With tweezers or good fingernails
> you can start at the peak of the shield and try to tear off 1/2 of the
> pyramidal shield tissue. You'll easily see the bud underneath. Then take off
> the other half. Or you can try to take hold of one corner of the base of the
> pyramid and pull straight across to remove the entire shield at once. I
> think that's harder. Then with a toothpick or similiar sized instrument,
> smear on a very thin layer of the paste (you shouldn't be able to see the
> paste when you're done). Neatness doesn't count. Et voila, you're done.
> You'll notice within a week if something is going to happen or not. Good
> luck.
> Gary

Ok, Gary,
I just tried doing it. I suspect that I did not do it correctly -- I thi
nk I may have damaged the spike when pulling off the shield (the spike
is extremely thin and the shield was miniscule. Also I am not sure
whether there really was a bud under that shield, I couldn't really see
one there, or rather I saw something too small to be able to determine
whether that's a bud or whatnot. But I still applied the paste just in
case, figuring I have nothing to loose here. We will see in a week. If
something does happen, I will of course report it here. Thanks for the
advice. I may try this again sometime with a bigger Phal where it would
be easier.
Joanna