Dendrobium woes.

[gehentogo]

I rescued these two from my wife, also (lucky she doesn't read this forum!)

Anyway, I took them to work. I had posted some pictures of one of these before in my gallery, and someone said it was a dendrobium. I think the other tall one is a dend. also, but am not sure.

Anyway, it was suggested that they needed a lot of light, so I took them to my desk at work, and have a desklamp with a 60 watt grow light pointed at them (the white lamp in the photo).

The tall one was ready to be thrown out by my wife because all of the leaves are curly and weird looking. I took it thinking it probably isn't getting either enough light or water.

Anyway, some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow. I hope that is normal.

I tried to repot it, but when I had it out of the pot, I found that the roots are so deeply entrenched in the coconut husks that I figured I would do damage to it. So I just put it back, and soaked it for 10 minutes.

The other one seems OK, except for a couple leaves have some dark, dead looking tissues on the outer edges of them. It doesn't appear to be spreading, but I don't know.

Anyway, my light is on a timer, and is on for about 14 hours a day. Not ever having used a grow light before, I had no idea what to do with it. Is it set up in a way that will benefit my plants?

Thanks for the help.

[quiltergal]

Hi there. Looks to me like the Den with the curly leaves didn't get enough water when it was actively growing. That's why the leaves are all crinkley. These don't need a winter rest either. Feed and water as ususal and grow them warm.

[Becca]

I agree with Terri! The leaf crinkling is called leaf pleating and it happens from lack of water or moisture. It is normal for some of the lower leaves to turn yellow and fall off on the older growths. I see some good roots in one of those photo's...I would just keep watering and I think you will be fine. How often are you watering?

[gehentogo]

No idea what my wife was doing, but I started soaking it for 10 minutes once a week. The coconut husks are what were in the pot when we bought it a couple years ago, do you think they are still OK?

[Becca]

I think 10 minutes once a week will be fine. Maybe others will give their advice on how they water their dendrobiums. I transfered most of mine into s/h culture when they had new root growth and they seem to be liking it. One I just potted in LECA but not using the s/h culture with it since I was having problems with the medium staying to moist and growing fungus, but I have to water that one more often since it dries out quicker. I had a dendrobium that was potted in the chunck of coco husk...I was bad and took it out, it did a lot of root damage. I put it into s/h and it took forever (about 6 months) to recover it's root system since there wasnt any new root growth at the time...I gave it away when it was on the rebound and haven't hear how it did or is doing. not sure how long the coco husk will hold up, perhaps someone else will know?

[JennS]

I would have to agree with both comments above the crinkling (or correctly dubbed pleating) comes from lack of water. I didn't know this either and couldn't figure out why i had such a funky looking oncidium. I thought it was supposed to be that way at first! HAHA!

Anyway, the coconut husks that are attached to the roots, just leave them be. However, if that is what the plant came in a couple years ago, it probably needs to be repotted. You can soak the plant for up to 30 minutes or so (you can go longer, but 30 is good) and then remove it from the pot. Remove any loose husk and discard. If there are parts stuck to your roots, leave those parts alone. Use a new medium (bark is really easy as it dries out quick enough to keep from overwatering) that has been soaked overnight *I should have put that part first!*. Then repot your plant with the new medium and remaning bits of husk that were stuck to roots. That is my two cents. The old husks are probably pretty broken down which leads to uneven drying and then it is hard to determine when to water.

The old leaves will remain pleated, but with a new watering regimine (maybe 2 times a week for an indoor area with brand new bark, but less if you go with spag. or somethign that retains more water) the new growths should appear as regular non-pleated leaves. The yellow leaves look normal, they will, drop most to all of the leaves on some of the older canes, so don't worry unless it is happening on the older growths.

As for the dead tissue, I can't see it in the plants, but just watch it. If it grows, I would remove the leaf/leaves in question.

Lastly, I don't know about the lighting. A 60w grow light might be OK. I always opt for natural light when possible, but if it's in your office, that might not be possible, so the grow light might be the next best option. There are many very knowledgeable growers who use artificial lighting so hopefully they will come along and post. IF not, we can give them a little push...HEHE.....

Finally, I like the orchid board on your monitor in the pics! That is the way to win people over on here!

[Lavendula]

um, I just repotted my dend, and the coconut husks were real broken down, but still attached to the plant pretty well, so I soaked it in water and then just sort of peeled the husk chunks away from the roots - it came away in layers and the roots stayed intact.


also - just a quick note, your light is pretty close to those plants (not sure if that is good or not, I don't use grow lights) and I see you have em in plastic pots inside the clay pots... the heat from your light could be causing at least the little one (seems pretty yellow lookin to me) to sweat inside it's pot, and apparently dends like to dry out a good bit between waterings. I'd lift the light up about six inches or so and switch the plants - put the big one close to the lamp, and the little on on the edge of the desk - and see if that helps the colour of the little one. Also, it could just be protesting the bright light - perhaps it likes moderate lighting when it's little?

[quiltergal]

I think your light is fine. Looks like it's about 12" from the plants? Ideally Dens like to grow in bright light. You should be shooting for somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 foot candles. You can buy a cheap light meter and hold it at leaf level to check. You might have to actually move the light closer. The leaf color is good. When the leaves are really dark deep green that means they aren't getting enough light. Happy plants are usually a light grassy green . The edges of the leaves will sometimes get a little red tinge to them. That's when you know you've got the right light intensity.

Repotting is pretty easy. As Jenn suggested a good soak will make the coco nice and soft and easy to remove. I think you can safely reuse the same pot. Dens like to be somewhat pot bound. Whatever medium you do use make sure you soak it for at least 24 hrs with a couple of water changes.

[Becca]

I would like to say that I soaked my dendrobium that was in the coco husk for a long time....longer then 30 minutes at least....and I still ended up slaughtering the roots when I tried removing them!

[shams]

You know... I don't think your second plant is a den..... Looks more like it could be some sort of Cattelya? I could be wrong though. you remember what the flowers looked like?

Also, kudos for the OB product placement in the background there