Is dendrobium ok?

[Lou_Reid]

Hello my dendrobium was neglected and I cut it the dead stalks back. For over a year all it grew was short fat stumps, roots are sprouting from everywhere. Recently its started growing what I think are the long stalks that produce flowers.
Whats going on with it? Do I need to do anything or leave it alone.

[james j]

What's odd to me is that the growth on the right in picture 2 looks like a nobile type and the one left looks like a hard cane type. Are they physically attached to each other as in growing off the same base?

What I think happened is the plant died back and is now growing new shoots off a dormant eye. So the plant kind of reverted back to being a seedling in a manner of speaking. In a healthy plant the new growth would be bigger than the old growth. If the new growths continue to get bigger you're okay if they get smaller you need to change something.

I don't see a flower spike in the photos and wouldn't expect one for a few years. Wait for the canes to be as big as the old ones you removed. Also if a cane is still green don't remove it even if the leaves drop.

As for care, I'm not sure. To me it looks like there are 2 different plants in the same pot. The 2 plants I think they look like would require different care. But maybe it just looks that way in the photo.

[Jeff214]

I agree with much of what James mentioned there. I think it looks fine. As your plant matures, it probably has more energy to produce larger and larger growths. It probably has another year or two before it blooms.

[aliceinwl]

It looks like it has a bunch of old small canes and some new basal keikis or basal growths that are really taking off. The vigor of the new canes is an indication your plant is pretty happy with current conditions. Den. nobile types like a cool dry winter to trigger blooming. I think the recommendation is to stop fertilizer in August and water only if the canes start to wrinkle after September and put it somewhere bright, dry and cool. You can resume regular watering after buds start forming. I usually resume regular watering / fertilizer in March regardless of buds because some of my younger plants don’t bloom every year.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Lou_Reid

Hello my dendrobium was neglected and I cut it the dead stalks back. For over a year all it grew was short fat stumps, roots are sprouting from everywhere. Recently its started growing what I think are the long stalks that produce flowers.
Whats going on with it? Do I need to do anything or leave it alone.

If the orchid remains nice and green, and new growing activity is occurring, then all is well.

When roots are growing out from the stems up the top somewhere, or even in the middle of stems ----- they're roots for new little orchid plants. It is one way for dendrobium orchids to propagate (or produce new plants). If these little plants are to survive, then the usual thing to do is to let them keep growing longer and longer roots - until the roots are so long where it should be ok to separate the juveniles.

For long dendrobium stalks - one thing you could do is to use thin wooden skewers, and tie the new growth to the skewer to get it to grow upwards instead of on a angle. But - on the other hand, if you don't mind stalks growing out on an angle, then that's ok too.

[KingKong]

the leaf tips turning yellow is a sign of something about to go wrong but as is your plant looks quite happy.

I would advise you replace the media before it goes bad.

There might be some that disagree with me but my nobiles don't lose their leaves until the plant discards them and that looks different to leaves turning yellow at the tips.

[Roberta]

I can't see the bark well enough to tell whether it needs replacing - if it was potted only a year ago, it should be fine. Since the plant is actively rooting, if it need potting now would be the time. But if it has only been a year, probably best to leave it alone unless there's a visible problem, since you want it to have a chance to establish itself into the new medium.

[Lou_Reid]

Thanks everyone for explaining what the orchid is doing. When I got it, it had 2 neat stalks with flowers and I couldn't tell what all the new growth and roots were.
A few leaves are going yellow, its been unusually warm and sunny so not sure if that has contributed. The medium is probably more18 months old so I could repot it in case this is an issue.

[KingKong]

yep, hope you can source some good bark during the lockdown.
If you can't then clay pebbles will work too.

Just be very gentle repotting, you want to avoid ripping any roots, so massage the outside of the pot to loosen any roots that might be attached and very gently as you are pulling it out make sure there is nothing tugging.

Like said the plant looks good, but 18 months is the right time for a repot even if the leaves have received too much sun which can also be the case. So up to you, I would check just to be sure.

Repots can do a lot of damage even stunting a plant for a year but it can also go smoothely not affecting the plant one beat so don't go ripping it abruptly, have a smell of the media, it probably will need replacing though