Dendrobium, new growth?? New root?? Or my imagination...

[Dendy83]

So I'm still holding onto my limping Dendrobium "genting glory" (which I thought was a nobile, but it's not). I'm starting to have thoughts of tossing it, it's in pretty bad shape. But I've been taking care of it in the hopes that something will change and it will slowly come back. I was doing my daily examination and weekly watering when I noticed this white thing. Now I do stick a moisture meter in there and I initially thought I scratched the cane, but I'm not so sure. So...what is it??

[IMG] IMG_8891 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG] IMG_8893 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG] IMG_8895 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]

[WhiteRabbit]

Best I can tell, new growth

[Dendy83]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Best I can tell, new growth

YAAAAAAAAAAY! I bet you can tell that at least 2 maybe even 3 canes will be lost, I'm thrilled that this may be new growth!

[NYCorchidman]

not roots, it is a start of a new cane.

Genting Glory makes some beautiful flowers. well worth keeping!

These types of dendrobiums are quite tough. even if roots are gone, you can still keep the cane and keikis may soon follow.

Just be careful not to scratch that new growth off by sticking things in and out of the mix. To me, your pot looks quite small and the mix is big enough. You don't really need to measure moisture level. You can.
If the plant doesn't have much roots (I don't know what you mean by in bad shape as the canes look perfectly fine from the part I can see at least), no need to water, but start to mist as soon as the new growth gets big enough and starting making its own roots.

If the plant has some roots, then, you can water the pot twice a week or even more as the days get warmer.

You want to give this plant lots of bright light.

For now, also, in case you like misting like me, do not mist on the new growth as misting directly on small tender growth can ruin them. wait until it gets a lot bigger, then it can handle lots of stuff.

Congratulations!!!

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[Dendy83]

Thank you so much for the advice NY. Here's what the full plant looks like...

[IMG] IMG_8890 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]

So here's what happened...I bought it not knowing anything about Dendro's and not only did I repot right away (I should have waited at least a couple weeks), but it was in a NW window and in a pot WAY too big (the pot is at least 10 inches tall and 8 inches wide, but that's what the nursery told me to get...) So the blooms fell off and the remaining 3 leaves. I decided to unpot and take a look at it and a lot of the roots seemed unhealthy....though I'm still a novice as to what healthy dendro roots look like. The roots seem completely different than phals. SO I repotted it in its original container which is smaller and would let it get to "near dryness" like I read it needed and then I mist the ceramic pot around it to provide a little bit of humidity without letting water sit on the canes. It is now upstaires and the temps are a bit more consistent, though the temp drops to a nice 65 degrees near the window, and it's in a SW facing window. Anyways, 2 of the canes are turning olive brown and will probably fall off, the remaining 2 canes are extremely shriveled and I think it's because the roots rotted or were unhealthy so the canes aren't sucking up anything.

Thanks for the advice on not misting the new growth directly. I will be sure to take photos, I am very very excited! What I would like is to see what healthy dendro roots look like so when the new cane gets a bit more mature I can do some trimming of unhealthy stuff and pot it in a smaller ceramic pot.

Pretty much the only reason I kept holding onto this guy is because I fell in love with these blooms...

[IMG] IMG_20130127_152754 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]

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[NYCorchidman]

Definitely pretty flowers, they are much darker than other Genting Glory I've seen.

Well, unless you were watering like crazy and kept the plant too wet too long, it was the cold that hurt your plant.
These are tropical plants and even 65 (is that night time low or day time high??) is rather too cool for these types. These are tryly heat and light loving plants.
So the previous location for this plant in your house must have been cooler than 65? that must well be the reason. When subjected to cold, they drop the flowers and the leaves turn yellow and drop also.

If this plant didn't suffer anything, then the tallest three canes in your picture would still have leaves.

Dendrobiums have roots that are much skinnier than phals as you can see. The way to tell to see if they are alive or dead, is to bend them when completely dry. Dead roots bend easiler or break off. brittle.
Live roots won't do that. Dead roots also feel hollow to the touch while the live roots have some firmness to them.
Many older roots look bad but often they are still alive so if you are not completely sure, just leave them intact.

Whatever happened to the plant, it is great that there is a new growth starting.
It may look quite small at the moment but you never know. Some dens start a tiny pointy new growth and as it grows, it can get really big. Then some other dens swell up its dormant eye to quite a size before sprouting out and begin quite big.
Only time will tell.

Even if the plant lost most of its root, I wouldn't be surprised if this new cane will flower in the fall this year as it matures. If not, definitely next year, it will.

Protect it from direct afternoon sun in the summer time in your SW window, but just watch the leaves as an indicator of how the plant is doing.

Weekly Fertilizing once the new cane begins its first leaf is also good as these plants grow quite fast and are heavy feeders.

---------- Post added at 02:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 AM ----------

All new roots will be white with green growing tip just like phals, except phals are silvery not white.

I know Spring is here when my dendrobiums start sending up their new shoots, which all of mine are doing at the moment except for some small keikis.

It may seem forever until it gets any bigger than it is now, but once it hits certain size, then boom! it takes off and fun to watch it grow.
I say, give it a month or two. then you will really see it grow.

Enjoy~

[Dendy83]

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

These are tropical plants and even 65 (is that night time low or day time high??) is rather too cool for these types. These are tryly heat and light loving plants.
So the previous location for this plant in your house must have been cooler than 65?

Dendrobiums have roots that are much skinnier than phals as you can see. The way to tell to see if they are alive or dead, is to bend them when completely dry.

Protect it from direct afternoon sun in the summer time in your SW window, but just watch the leaves as an indicator of how the plant is doing.

How do you use that multi-quote feature?

Anyways, yes, it was January when I bought it and very cold that day, so it might have been affected coming home. Then, our kitchen sits over the garage so the kitchen (NW window) gets much colder than the rest of the house. It wouldn't be exaggerating if I told you it probably got down to 55 in that room near the window.

However, now that it's warming up and it's upstairs near a window I'd say the lowest it's ever ever gotten at night is 65. Also, I don't why I said SW, I meant SE. So I let it get the full morning sun for a few hours...but without leaves it probably doesn't matter much.

Thanks for the root advice...the ones that are exposed are brittle, though I'm not going around breaking roots, just testing!

So would you just wait for the older canes to shrivel up and fall off on their own or would you take them off yourself? Other than color and brittleness, how do you really know what roots to trim off? Perhaps with this guy it might be best not to trim?

Thanks NYC Man, I really appreciate your helpfulness and knowledge!!

[NYCorchidman]

The answer to the first question, there is not a special feature of that, but it just happens that way when you post more than twice with relatively short time interval. I don't know exactly what the interval is, but I think a few minutes. then if you go longer than that, your next post following its previous one will show up as a seperate new one of its own.

Yeah, even a brief exposure of really cold temperature can cause the dropping of flowers and leaves. I know this because when I buy dendrobiums during winter (I try not to but when I see something I like, I just have to), I always lose at least one leaf and a couple of flowers. My recent purchase actually died within one week but that's because I was carrying it outside for almost half an hour on a freezing day. Yeah, I was so stupid. don't know what I was thinking. but at least I know its name and where to get it from if I wanted the same variety.

Now, I understand your not wanting to hurt your plant, but twisting the dry roots is the best and sure way to tell whether or not the roots are alive.
It will not hurt the roots at all. GETNLY twist or bend the roots when completely dry.
Any dead roots will easily break off. Live roots won't be bent and you will feel they are rather tough or stiff. It is very easy way to tell.

As long as the drainage is really good, you don't have to check whether or not roots are alive. Even if there is a ball of dead roots inside the potting mix, it won't really affect the plant if the drainage is great. You can repot it next year after some good growth of this year.

Your canes have no leaves left on them, but they are still green and green means they can still photosynthesize and make food. They also contain water and "food" for the plant. Trimming them away will negatively affect the plant. best to leave them and only trim off if they turn brown and dry up on their own.


Both SE and SW exposure are great but with SE, you don't have to worry about shading even in the summer, so I would say it's better. but do you get full sun all morning without anything blocking the sun? It is important that dendrobiums get lots of strong light. more the better.
Good light will ensure good growth and good flowering.

[Dendy83]

Yes, I get full sun until about 10am and then its strong indirect light the rest of the day. I wish the nursery would have told me how much light it needs and I might not have gotten it, but I might be doing something right as I've got new growth.

Thanks again for all your advice and reassurance, I'll be sure to post updates :-) blooms, or even a spike, by this fall would be a.m.a.z.i.n.g.!

[Dendy83]

I just wanted to post an update of the new growth on my dendrobium genting glory (just a noid I believe). The media may look dry because it is, he is due for a watering tomorrow.

[IMG]
IMG_20130513_083400 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]

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IMG_20130513_083354 by Blehri, on Flickr[/IMG]