New growth on Dendrobium... what do I do?

[RosieC]

While showing my father-in-law my dendrobium I noticed a new growth on it.

(I was demonstrating to him that when he saw "lots of different types of orchids" in a shop what he had really seen was lots of different types of Phal and "look this plant is an orchid as well". Well actually I was hoping my hunch was wrong and he had found a shop arround here which sold more than the standard Phals... but no he agreed all of them had leaves like my Phals. )

Anyway I'm wondering what the new growth is (is it a new cane as I hope). And should I change the way I treat it? I think I saw something on other threads about starting to water it again once growths started but I don't know which types of Dendrobium that applies to.

This is my first dendrobium and it's a NOID, I don't even know which category of Dendrobium it falls in to. I don't believe it is a deciduous, it has not lost it's leaves this winter. It's flower stalk came out of the top of the cane. The second picture below shows how it looked in August.

Since I bought it it has not grown at all (until now), the only thing it has done is open all it's flowers then several months later loose all its flowers (I was really pleased how long they lasted ).

I reduced watering since October to about once a month (from once a week) and it naturally had reduced light because our days are getting darker and shorter (it's on the brightest windowledge in the house).

Should I start watering it more now it has a new growth? I can't increase the light as I have no way of doing that but is there anything else I can do?



This dendrobium in August

[Lagoon]

Rosie,

You den its a phal type. No rest period, just a slow down on watering if the light is not at its brightest.

Very pretty one

[rogerman]

As for the new shoot..... Just keep doing what you are doing!! You now have one mature shoot and your plant has just given birth to a new shoot.

[iceicebaby]

Wow what a beautiful bloom.Wish it was in my collection.

[lostonthebeach]

Originally Posted by iceicebaby

Wow what a beautiful bloom.Wish it was in my collection.

:iagree:

Very pretty indeed!!!

[let_it_grow]

I'm in the same situation. I have a NOID Den that has a wee little baby shooting up, its about an inch and a half tall. I also didnt notice at 1st, it was hiding behind all the canes. Mine looks quite a bit like the one in the pic so maybe I should do the same. I water it once a week cause it dries out very very fast cause of all the holes in the pot. In the summer I soak it once a week to get the bark to retain some water and it seems to like that cause the last cane that grew is twice as tall and 3 times as thick as any of the previous canes. Since its actively growing should i be feeding it too?

[cb977]

Unless you know for sure that the plant requires a rest period...assume it doesn't

New growths look great, folks!

[quiltergal]

Hi Rosie, nice looking Den! As Gloria already pointed out your plant is a Phal type Den. These do not need a winter rest. Water as usual. Once a month is probably not enough, however, yours doesn't look like it minded too much. I would water it lightly weekly during the winter months when it's not actively growing, and step up the amount of water as it goes into an active growth cycle....which it's doing now. To answer your question, yes that is a new cane!

[let_it_grow]

Should you feed it too?

[RosieC]

Thanks everyone. I watered it yesterday and I'll go back to watering once a week again.

I'm glad I've got a new cane growing... it did not seem to do anything for so long and I had no idea if I was looking after it correctly or not... but I take this new growth as a good sign.