Dendrobium griffithianum seems to be too sleepy - Orchid Board

Maru777 · #1 07-26-2021, 10:45 AM

Hello everyone. I need a bit of advice with this little plant I bought. It was being killed by my local plant shop (they specialize in this when it comes to orchids) and so I bought it and got it home in about April. It had one leaf that was yellowing and fell that week. I read up on it and all I could find is that it would likely sleep for about 2-3 months in winter. Now I thought maybe it was brought from somewhere else and it was still confused so I left it be, other than that it has no leaves it looks ok. But now it’s been 3 months since I had it, not to mention it’s the height of summer and it’s still doing nothing. Not declining but not sprouting anything new either. Do I just leave it be? Should I change something? It lives on a screened patio at about 30-33 C, 65-80% humidity and about 3,000 FC sun. Should I bring it inside where there is AC to trick it into thinking it’s winter so it would then wake up?

Roberta · #2 07-26-2021, 12:46 PM

What is the condition of the roots? What about watering? Perhaps light watering but if it is dormant it wants only a little. Then, if the canes are firm, just let it be... it may stay dormant until next spring.

Maru777 · #3 07-30-2021, 11:29 PM

Thank you! The canes are firm and look ok. The roots I can’t really see

I hope they are fine. I hope it does not sleep until spring but to be fair I did have one catt that got sulky because of a wrong-time repot and did nothing at all for 1&1/2 years, had an encyclia that also did nothing for 7 months when I got it, so this one might just do the same. It’s like they know I lack patience and are doing it on purpose

maybe by the time I retire I will learn my lesson

Roberta · #4 07-30-2021, 11:35 PM

Patience, patience... Even if the roots aren't great, when it starts to grow, the new growths will also put down roots, maybe next spring. If the canes are firm, it's doing fine. The solution to stressing about a small collection? Get more orchids! That just improves the odds that some will be performing at any particular time. And keep you too busy to stress out.

Dusty Ol' Man · #5 07-31-2021, 10:42 AM

Roberta gives sage advice. I would add that if you brought it home from a known orchid killer, I would repot it immediately so I could check the roots and medium. Also, go to Ray's website First Rays LLC › Using Science & Logic to Advance Orchid Growing and follow his recommendations for stimulating root growth. It has worked wonders on my dendrobiums as well as catts.