However, Dr. S. K. Palai who has worked extensively on orchid propagation and is currently serving as Associate Professor
(Floriculture) in Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology was kind enough to give us the following insight into the
working of these pastes and liquids.
“Honestly speaking, it is very difficult to say, what the Kiekipro
contains and how the plants behave to the application of Kiekipro. Looking into the efficiency of Kiekipro in inducing keiki/
flower spike, it can be said that it contains a cytokinin. Again it is
difficult to say whether this product contains only cytokinin or
a combination of cytokinin and auxin in a definite proportion. I
speculate that this product contains a cytokinin most probably
Benzyladenine. To support my speculation, I would like to mention the book Plant Physiology written by Salisbury and Ross
(1991), where they have clearly mentioned that if a cytokinin is
added to a non-growing lateral bud, the lateral bud often begin
to grow. As cytokinin promotes cell division, it has promoted
the dormant buds of the orchids, in Dr. Mohanty’s orchidarium,
to grow. If the dormant bud was a vegetative bud, then it develops into a keiki and if it was a flower bud then it produces a
number of flower spikes.
At this point, I also feel that it is relevant to mention the experiments conducted by Stewart and Button (1977) who found
that application of Benzyladenine (a cytokinin) at the rate of
1mg/l stimulated the development of axillary buds from the
stem base of Paphiopedilum. Why I speculate that the formulation contains Benzyladenine, is because these are highly active
compounds in promoting cell division but these are not formed
in all species of plants including orchids. Therefore, external application of Benzyladenine promotes cell division in orchids,
whether it is a vegetative shoot producing cell or flower spike
producing cell.
Again, I say that Kiekipro may contain an auxin in addition to
Benzyl adenine is because, Benzyladenine helps in initial development of either keiki or flower spike but, further growth and
development of the keiki/flower spike is facilitated of by auxin.
However, I understand that Keikipro is a result of the long years
of consistent research by the company/individual who has developed this product”. Dr. S. K. Palai
Steve Burger, a hobbyist grower and co-owner of KeikiPro LLC,
was graceful enough to throw more light on KiekiPro. He wanted to highlight the fact that cytokinins and auxins could never
seem to be mixed in an effective way in one product; they would
counteract each other. So generally speaking cytokinins can be
anti-auxins, and auxins can be anti-cytokinins. The market has
both Kieki growth paste and kieki rooting paste.
KiekiPro overcomes this limitation and provides a single application formulation that provides both leaf and root growth
Usually the plants respond to these sprays and pas ѕ́