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stephia4

Dendrobium Sprouting?

Stephia4
10 years ago

Good Evening,
Very new Orchid "grower" here... my boyfriend bought me a stunning white Dendrobium Orchid (though unsure of any other details) whilst it was flowering.
Since then I repotted it with 'house-plant' compost that I had, and have read that I should probably not have done this...
However, over the last week the Orchid has started sprouting at the bottom. I assumed originally that this was the dead leaves beginning to re-grow, however now looking online for info I'm wondering if these are Kiekos?
The plant came with one large stem (about 1+1/2 feet) and one secondary small stem (only a few inches). This smaller stem was also flowering, and now seems to have another new stem also growing from it. The larger stem has dropped all but the top few leaves too...

So, firstly I guess I'd like to know if the sprouts at the bottom on the large stem are new growths, i believe they probably are as they have what look to be tiny roots growing underneath.

Should I re-pot in more Orchid favourable compost?

Any other info/tips you have would be very welcome, excited at the prospect of this re-flowering :D

Thanks!

Comments (7)

  • terpguy
    10 years ago

    Dear sweet Jesus get that plant out of that soil NOW! This could have been a death sentence. Get a bag of orchid bark mix from lowes/Home Depot/local garden center.

    You are correct. On the left is a new growth. This will become a new cane. On the right you have two keikis growing mid stem. They can ultimately be pulled from mama when they develop a nice root system.

  • Stephia4
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Ah bark mix shop here I come, thanks for the help Terpguy!

    Just wondering exactly how I get it out? Haha!
    When it was bought for me it came in a slightly smaller pot, already in some sort of soil? With bark chippings on top... Do I need to completely remove the current stuff from the roots before replanting, or just take away what I can without agitating the roots?

    Really grateful for the help - Fingers crossed with a re-pot it will continue to flourish :D

    This post was edited by Stephia4 on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 17:23

  • terpguy
    10 years ago

    My pleasure.

    Remove all of it. By repotting into this soil you already disturbed the roots. Moving it out of it won't do much worse. And put it in a much smaller pot. You want a pot to fit the size of the root ball, which needs to be snug in the pot. You're probably looking at a 4" pot, if not 3.5".

  • arthurm
    10 years ago

    Just to add to the above......to fine tune the culture you need to know what type of dendrobium you have. A name from a name tag would be handy, but it probably came without one.
    I suspect that it is a nobile/soft-cane type where the flowers come from the side of the cane/psuedobulb like this.
    {{gwi:151352}}.

    If the flowers came from a long stem like this , it is a warmer growing hard-cane type.
    {{gwi:151353}}

  • Stephia4
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Many Thanks to both Terpguy + Arthurn.

    I believe based on the above that it is in fact a nobile/soft-cane as it was flowering directly from the cane as mentioned above...

    Will be heading to the garden centre later this morning for the supplies to fix my sillyness! Thanks guys, here's hoping it will carry on growing as it has been once re-potted correctly :)

    Stephia4

  • Stephia4
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Re-Potted the Den in a much smaller pot :)
    Roots were very damp so have potted in new bark/orchid compost and left on the window-sil in the sun to dry it out a bit and given the leaves/sprouts a little spray for now...
    Turns out there was ANOTHER cane growing underneath the soil too, so have left the top of that exposed too. Hopefully this will do the trick :)

  • terpguy
    10 years ago

    Much better. And keep it in that light, they appreciate a good amount of direct light indoors.

    And just FYI that "new growth" you discovered and left the top exposed is actually a very old growth. It won't grow at all.