Den. speciosum feeding schedule?

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

Are you suggesting more often or should I just go ahead and resume my normal growing season water and feed program?

To be frank, “pushing” the dosage is something I have dabbled with, and while the science suggests it should be effective. I cannot say for certain what the reaction will be.

When I have doubled the application frequency. I have seen - separately or in combination - accelerated root growth, taller spikes, bigger flowers, multiple growths, and longer-lived flowers. What I have not seen is any issue.

So, my attitude would be “what the hell. Give it a shot “.

[PuiPuiMolcar]

I did feed mine pretty heavily in the late spring summer, like a spoon every 2 weeks. Then cut to 1/4 once a month in winter. With the regular MSU fert and some calmag and nothing else. In my case I think it was the cold that signaled mine to go on spike.

[Keysguy]

Originally Posted by Ray

To be frank, “pushing” the dosage is something I have dabbled with, and while the science suggests it should be effective. I cannot say for certain what the reaction will be.

When I have doubled the application frequency. I have seen - separately or in combination - accelerated root growth, taller spikes, bigger flowers, multiple growths, and longer-lived flowers. What I have not seen is any issue.

So, my attitude would be “what the hell. Give it a shot “.

My thinking as well.

[estación seca]

Indeterminate growth is just that - the plant grows and grows along the main stem axis. Flowers eventually form somewhere along the stem. Most vines, trees and shrubs are like this. Fertilizer is important throughout the growing season so the plant has it available when forming buds and new growth.

In plants with determinate growths, like orchids, the final leaf and buds may be formed before the grower notices the growth bud swelling. Unless fertilizer at certain times interferes with growth or flowering, these plants should have plenty of fertilizer as the new growth is made, before it swells.

Many orchid species form only one set of growths per year. Fertilizer just before, or at the very beginning of their growth season, is very important. Later in the season, less so. In cultivation, though, many of these species and their hybrids may have more than one growth period per year.

Some of the deciduous Dendrobiums are inhibited from flowering by fertilization too late in the previous growing season. Dens in general seem to mature growths with potential flowering meristems in place, but the flowers don't develop until later - sometimes years later. Look closely near leaf bases on many Dens. You will see small raised circles from which flowers might come. Thus the advice not to fertilize Dens through winter, and not to begin fertilizing until buds are visible.

I have spoken with commercial Cymbidium growers who think inflorescences form within new growths in midwinter, before they push up, more than a year before flowering time. Thus, the advice to fertilize Cyms through the year.

[Keysguy]

and not to begin fertilizing until buds are visible.

ES- do you remember the source of that? That's the information I was looking for.

Everything I find says stop fertilizer & reduce water but nothing I found had anything regarding re-starting water and fert beyond "when new growth appears". I was really wondering what, if anything, to do at bud start.

To wit, my Den. spectabile falls in this category, correct? Guess what? since I stopped on 12/1 it has put up a single 3 foot tall new growth which is to my original point that plants here never really stop growing. And unfortunately only 1 flower spike vs the 20 or so it had last year

I'm trying to do the speciosum right because it is its first bloom.

[estación seca]

Dendrobium spectabile, the nobile group and speciosum come from three quite different climates. I don't think withholding winter water helps at all with good flowering in most Dens, and it may damage them. Of course neither is it good to water heavily when they're not making growth. But they don't need to be dried to the point of dropping leaves. The nobile hybrids sold in supermarkets have full, lush sets of leaves despite profuse flowering, indicating they have been kept watered. They flower due to deliberate cooling. For the nobiles and speciosum cool winter nights and very bright winter light - to emulate deciduous forest - seem important.

Dendrobium spectabile is in the Latouria group. They don't want to dry out much ever. Many are in constant growth and hybrids especially might flower more than once a year. They come from many temperature ranges but spectabile wants to be hot and moist all year. If I could keep it like that I'd probably fertilize heavily all year. But most of us have growing areas that are cooler in winter, so it makes sense to cut back on fertilizer then as well.

Your Den. spectabile might want more water and fertilizer through the year. Also realize the wild types are large to very large plants, and yours might not be big enough yet.

[Bellshazza]

Hey mate, speciosum comes from my neck of the woods, it grows wild in the mountains here, we get down to -5C (23F) in winter and above 40C (104F) in summer, with a wide range of humidity from 3% to 90%. Got 4 sitting in the forks of trees out the front by the roadside, it gets the frost the heat the rain and hail, maybe sometimes I water it when I wonder past with a hose but generally neglect it. Even have a Den kingia dad dropped in amongst it that's loving life (another wild species we have here).
The one out the front gave about 14 spikes this year compared to the one in shelter of the same age that gave 5 crappy looking spikes. Appears the elements did it wonders to encourage spiking, or mine is a freak of nature.

Just keep an eye on it if it's at spiking stage, if it's going a bit crispy around the roots give it a drink, keep the ants off the spikes they will absolutely smash the flowers and they'll drop within a week. You should get a solid bloom time of a few weeks off it.

Would happily upload a photo but this forum.is bogus for sizes and stuff.

Hope.it goes well.

[Toadwally]

What are typical daytime highs in the winter?

[estación seca]

Welcome, Belshazza!

How hot are your summer nights? Our summer daytime temperatures are 40-48 / 104-118 F or higher and our summer nights can be over 30 / 85 F for many weeks. I've been nervous about putting speciosum and kingianum outside due to the high night temperatures.

[Bellshazza]

Our summer nights usually sit 20C or around 70F they are a hardy orchid, they grow on rock faces thus the nickname Sydney rock lilly or Sydney rock orchid, and randomly on tree branches, they have a fairly large root system that spreads out, they do like fairly compact pots although they may dry out quicker, they come from an area that gets drought as well so even tho long dry spells will set it back pretty hard its fairly hard to kill them.

They grow most of the east coast of Aus which is from Victoria that gets some harsh winters and is temperate climate all the way up to Queensland which is tropical/subtropical. As far as orchids go they are very versatile in enviroment requirements.

In the wild rely on leaf litter falling into them for nutrition, and grow from coastal areas up to 3000ft in the mountains (1000m) although they can withstand our winters which see temps go just below freezing and frosts for a few weeks on end I'd be hesitant to letting them get to much cold, especially snowy conditions or ice winds. Same as the drying out process it would definitely set it back.

The leaves on them can stay on them for years like up to 10 years before they drop which makes them look nice and big for many years.
If you've got one potted up in bark (obviously they're epi) don't be to stressed out if you forget to water it for a few days, but definitely give it a good water when you do.

They do seem to thrive better when they get a few hours of direct sun in the morning or afternoon, I'd suggest not letting them get smashed in the middle of the day, it will cause leaf burn and some discolouration, as well as let them get a bit of a touch of a frost in winter time.
Night time heat won't worry it, it's more the blasting sun that'll damage it.

So my theory would be, water it every 2nd or 3rd day in summer (depending how quickly their pots dry out) and as for winter watering, our wet season is late autumn through winter so the whole "less water in winter" idea for them is kind of blown out the window when they naturally in the wild get drenched that time of year haha.

If you want a good guide on watering requirments hust look at the average rainfall around Sydney for the year (remember Dec through Feb is our summer) and if the local average rainfall for that time of year is high then don't stress over the over watering thing to much. That been said do remember that would be for a plant in the wild on a rockface so they would shed a lot of water compared to been potted in possibly a greenhouse or something more protected.

If I get a chance later today I will take some "smaller" photos of how some of the ones I've got in the trees around the house so.you can see how much you don't really need to do at all for them to survive.

---------- Post added at 07:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:29 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Toadwally

What are typical daytime highs in the winter?

Where I am daytime is usually 15C (60F) in winter. I live in a place that's an hour from snow in winter and an hour from the beach for summer. Best of both worlds but then we have a massive range of average temps between winter lows and summer highs