Big dendrobium discolor, how can I mount/pot it?

[Curtis s]

Hello everybody,

I am a brand new member of this sight and a passionate orchid grower. I recently acquired this dendrobium discolor,






and was wondering how I could mount/pot it?

[Roberta]

First, Welcome!
In what part of Australia do you live? The plant looks like it was perhaps growing in a tree, so I am guessing that you are in the tropical north.

The photos don't give a good view of the roots, it looks like the plant might be somewhat dehydrated. With the way it's growing, I suspect that mounting will be easier than potting if you can maintain a mounted plant with sufficient watering. The plant is so big, perhaps you could divide it, pot part and mount part. Since you are in early spring, if there is new root growth, the timing would be good for either approach.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Yes, where in Australia do you live? If the climate is appropriate I would jam the root ball into a tree crotch and stand back.

[YetAnotherOrchidNut]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Yes, where in Australia do you live? If the climate is appropriate I would jam the root ball into a tree crotch and stand back.

Reminds me of asking orchid advice from a orchid grower in Singapore. His answer was "I don't do anything I just stick it in the ground/pipe/fence/whatever". Must be nice to be able to do that. :-)

[Curtis s]

I'm in south east Queensland so I'll defiantly try to "jam the root ball into a tree crotch" but how do I divide the plant, should I just cut through the root ball and separate the plant into different pieces?

[YetAnotherOrchidNut]

Dendrobiums grow from a rhizome. You can cut through it. The usual rule of thumb is make sure you keep at least 3 canes on each segment.

[SouthPark]

These orchids have no problem with growing on trees, and --- as can be seen -capable of putting out lots of roots out into the air, and everywhere.

At home - in North Queensland - I grow them in pots of scoria. Big pots are no problem. The chunks of scoria can be fairly large - about 15 cm average diameter. When potting the new discolor orchids (with roots) into any media ---- including scoria --- just avoid overly wet conditions down in the depths of the media for relatively long periods of time - as that can lead to some root drowning, and rotting of root, and not good for the orchid.

When the orchids are established however (after enough time and after new roots are growing --- adapting to the new conditions) ----- they seem to handle everything much better. The ones I grow here are watered by regular lawn pop-up sprinklers.

For your orchid ------ apart from trying to mount it on a tree - and providing adequate water for the orchid to re-establish ------ the other option is to use cutters to just divide in a few even groups. Then pot into airy scoria ---- or some other airy media, with very good drainage pot.

[Curtis s]

The plant does not have many new healthy roots, most of them are dead. Would it still be ok to mount or pot it, if not is there any way to encourage a lot more root growth?

Thanks for all the help and advice so far.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Curtis s

The plant does not have many new healthy roots, most of them are dead. Would it still be ok to mount or pot it, if not is there any way to encourage a lot more root growth?

Thanks for all the help and advice so far.

Curtis ..... these plants are generally very tough ----- ultra hardy. If you put it in the shade with fairly bright light, and sit the whole thing on top of a big pot of scoria ...... with the plant just lying on top of the scoria (or even big bark pieces) ------- no need to even put any roots into the media --- and you can even gently tie down the plant with maybe wooden stakes, so that it doesn't move around due to wind etc ....... then you can just water the roots each morning - with a hose or something. And the water will even go down into media ---- which is ok. Eventually, after some time, you'll get new roots developing. And when there are enough roots, you can go ahead to divide etc (if you want).

The 'whole' orchid doesn't need to be sitting on top of scoria (or other airy media) ...... not the whole orchid. Roots of these orchids can even hang outside. And they can even drape over the side of pots etc. It's fine.

And - maybe once a month (or even once every couple of weeks) ------ provide some orchid-suitable fertiliser. And some magnesium-calcium supplement (every couple of weeks or so).

For my discolor orchids here ----- I actually haven't needed to provide any fertiliser or mag-cal at all. They probably get enough nutrients from insect activity or some other natural activity going on in there. I haven't fertilised or given any supplements to them even after a few decades in their scoria pots. But this doesn't mean that it's unnecessary to provide fertiliser in some other places. It just depends on environment. It definitely won't hurt (and maybe even beneficial) to occasionally provide fertiliser and mag-cal.

The discolor orchids can handle full sun and very harsh sun. In the wild, I think that humidity is maybe nice in the morning, or when the sun goes down. And the orchids can get their water during those times.

Originally Posted by YetAnotherOrchidNut

Reminds me of asking orchid advice from a orchid grower in Singapore. His answer was "I don't do anything I just stick it in the ground/pipe/fence/whatever". Must be nice to be able to do that. :-)

True hahaha. Those places have pretty good growing conditions for orchids all year around. That's why he could just mount it pretty much anywhere - and maybe provide the occasional fertiliser and/or mag-cal, and that's about it.

[YetAnotherOrchidNut]

Originally Posted by Curtis s

The plant does not have many new healthy roots, most of them are dead. Would it still be ok to mount or pot it, if not is there any way to encourage a lot more root growth?

Thanks for all the help and advice so far.

FWIW, Dendrobiums grow roots generally from new canes only. The canes are energy storage device. They use the energy stored in the old canes to produce new ones. So, likely even if your plant lost all its roots, provided it had had a healthy rhizome and healthy canes if you just sat it somewhere where it would not rot and had the right humidity then it would eventually start growing new canes from "eyes" at the bottom of the existing cane, which would then grow roots. The only thing you need to do is ensure that the plant is stable so when it grows them it doesn't fall over and break them.

Even if the rhizome completely rots out, or if you end up with a couple of canes you cut off for some reason, you can usually turn them into new plants just by keeping the canes somewhere with indirect light and medium humidity (not so wet they rot, not so dry they shrivel). Cut healthy canes will often start forming keikis to preserve themselves. I have saved a dendrobium that way. In you climate I bet the keikis would grow quick too. It might be a good chance to experiment. ;-)