Can this dendrobium be saved?

[butterfly_muse]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

This den is just getting ready to go to sleep. If there was an issue it would present itself on "all" the leaves and not oldest leaves first. It will drop leaves on or two at a time for the next two months and stay leafless until it pushes new growth in the spring. This is natural. There could be soft scale on the leaves. When it has lost most of it's leaves curtail watering as there is nothing going on to utilize the water. The canes have enough stored energy to produce new growth in spring. I would mix up a dilute mix of physan and give it a spray. There's nothing wrong with using chemicals correctly. Of the numerous dens I've had through the years, they have all looked like this in the fall.

I thought there were ones that were evergreen and others that lose their leaves? This is a den. Valley isle blue, which I thought was a den phal and not one that was supposed to lose its leaves? But I could surely be wrong since this is my first one.

[NYCorchidman]

You are right.
This is not a nobile hybrid, so it is not getting ready to sleep.
Losing leaves on this type of dendrobium is always a warning sign unless they are really really really old. Leaves on these dens stay evergreen for years when conditions are good.

[james mickelso]

It's just unusual that the older leaves are looking like those that are getting ready to sleep through the winter while the younger, so far, are still green and firm. If it were a fungal attack or bacterial they all would be turning this way. Or even viral. But they are behaving like nobile types.

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

If those white cottony masses are rubbed off leaving some liquid or discoloration on your finger or paper towel I would say soft scale.

[butterfly_muse]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

It's just unusual that the older leaves are looking like those that are getting ready to sleep through the winter while the younger, so far, are still green and firm. If it were a fungal attack or bacterial they all would be turning this way. Or even viral. But they are behaving like nobile types.

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

If those white cottony masses are rubbed off leaving some liquid or discoloration on your finger or paper towel I would say soft scale.

They do not rub off. And when I rubbed them with alcohol there was no discoloration.

[james mickelso]

Hmmmm. Veddy eenterestink.

[NYCorchidman]

Regarding the white stuff on the leaf, I don't think it is much of something to worry about.

I say this because while collecting some fallen yellow leaves of my dendrobiums, I do see at least one leaf with a narrow slit that are white and dry.
It just looks like some kind of scar tissue.