resurrecting an orchid - Orchid Board

rikmoor · #1 04-15-2015, 01:50 PM

Hi - new to the boards, and not a green thumb, so go easy on me please.

My mother gave my wife a dendrobium orchid about 4 years ago when my wife's mother passed away. This orchid has been struggling for the entire winter. At Christmas I repotted it using sphagnum and an orchid soil blend from Lowes - there were 2 main stalks and they separated during the repotting process - so I potted them in 2 separate pots. One in an orchid pot - the other in a standard nursery pot with lots of slits cut in the sides for air and drainage. To date, the one in the orchid pot is gone. The second one has sprouted air roots (I think that is the term) and the stalk is looking bad near the soil. But the leaves are nice and green.

The orchid lives by an east facing privacy glass window but there are large trees that block early morning sun. So it gets very good, diffused light through the day. At this point I'm misting the leaves and air roots with rainwater with about 3-4 pumps of the spray bottle each morning. Then once a week, I pour about 3-4 tablespoons of rainwater from the spray bottle on the soil. I did that this morning before pic below and the soil looks weird because only part of the soil was darkened by the water - it hadn't absorbed throughout the soil yet.

So what to do with this lone stalk that has survived? Do I cut the bad looking stalk off and plant the air roots? Do I not touch anything since the leaves are green? Should I at least stake the little guy so it is standing up instead of leaning over?

Any tips or suggestions? Thank you very much!!

lotis146 · #2 04-15-2015, 01:58 PM

My condolences for the loss of your mother-in-law and the trouble with this plant. I do not have any Dendrobiums in my collection so I cannot help you here, however I will ask what you mean by orchid 'soil'? Was it called promix? I noticed you said it was for orchids.

Someone else will chime in who knows a thing or two about these guys but for the time being I will say that I think Dendrobiums like quite bright light, even higher than Cattleyas. In the meantime - while you're waiting for an experienced person - it wouldn't hurt to visit the Dend alliance sub-section and read up on proper cultural techniques and/or search around the web.

Good luck, keep us posted. I hope you're able to revive this fella!

bil · #3 04-15-2015, 02:18 PM

I have a lot of really grotty rescue dens that looked a lot worse, and are coming round. The problem there is that the roots are small, and not really big enough, and it is probably relying on the old stalk for food and water supplements.

Two choices. Either cut it off under the roots and pot the keiki, or tie the whole thing up, wrap sphagnum round the roots, and secure it and water it like that, cutting it off and planting when the roots are long enough.

If you cut and repot, I'd again wrap a small amount of sphag round the roots, and put in fine coir bark mix and water way more often than normal. The idea with the sphag and the frequent watering is to get the roots growing well, but when they do grow they are out into the bark where they can breathe.

rikmoor · #4 04-15-2015, 02:22 PM

Hi and thanks for the information. I appreciate your condolences...even though it has been 4 years some pains never truly heal. And that is part of this reason it is so important for me to nurse this plant back to health for my wife.

The orchid soil was a blend of some sort. I think it was a Miracle Grow blend. It specified that is was a fast draining blend for orchids and included Dendrobium on the package. I added additional sphagnum to the mix.

As for the sunlight, I believe that the sun is pretty good. There is a window on the south wall that gets diffused sunlight also - there is a very thing but opaque blind covering the window but filtered light still gets through and gives the orchid indirect/filtered light through the day.

Thanks again for your post!

bil · #5 04-15-2015, 02:25 PM

Meh, the word soil makes me nervous. Fine bark is good and allows air to circulate. It may just be the pic, but your mix in those shots looks too much like soil to me.

LizB88 · #6 04-15-2015, 02:45 PM

Sorry for the loss of your mother-in-law, and welcome to OB!
Good job in trying to rescue this guy. I don't know the type of "soil" you used, and it looks to me to be some type of peatmoss. but any how, the good thing is that the Den has given you a Keiki, which is a clone of the mother plant.
What I have learn with this guys is not to spray the leafs of the new cane, they can hold water and start to rot. So only spray the roots.
You can help the old came by providing some support to the new growth using a spike.
I would get some seaweed or kelp extract form Lowes and follow instruction on the bottle and give that to the mother plant once/month to help it grow new roots.
You can remove the new growth once the roots are about an inch or so (they split fairly easy) and plant it in orchids mix for dendrobiums, pot it in small, very small clear plastic pot with lots of holes on it for air circulation. If you can't find a plastic pot, you can make one out a crystal geyser sparkling water bottle just make sure you make holes on the bottom and on the sides.
Once you have removed it and pot it, place it in a bright window, and it sounds like the window you have already is a good fit. My den's can take morning sun before 8AM, but the new growths I usually introduce direct sun very slowly in order to not burn the leafs.
Also read up on Dendrobium Nobile culture to get a better understanding on how to care for it in the type of environment you have it.
Good job on getting a new growth and good luck on making it grow and thrive.

And if I'm missing anything someone with more experience will provide you with more and even better info.

dbarron · #7 04-15-2015, 04:37 PM

One other consideration is size, you should pot the little keiki in a very small pot, the smallest you can find, like perhaps 2 1/2 might be the largest possible...with tightly packed bark mix and water by drenching/soaking about once a week.
Without knowing what dendrobium (though I'm also assuming nobile) and what part of the contry, what temperatures, etc, I'm only guessing about once a week watering.

bil · #8 04-15-2015, 06:00 PM

That doen't look like a dendrobium nobile, I think it's a hard cane den.

Personally I would disagree about cramming it into a tiny pot. I prefer to give them enough space for the roots to spread out. Just don't put it into a pot too deep. The roots have to breathe. I manufacture my own pots so I can put them into a pot that's only 8 cm deep, but of a wider diameter.

Also those roots are tiny. Mine get a soaking twice a week, and a misting every day so that some water runs down to the roots. As the roots grow so I cut down on the water.

LizB88 · #9 04-15-2015, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bil

That doen't look like a dendrobium nobile, I think it's a hard cane den.

Personally I would disagree about cramming it into a tiny pot. I prefer to give them enough space for the roots to spread out. Just don't put it into a pot too deep. The roots have to breathe. I manufacture my own pots so I can put them into a pot that's only 8 cm deep, but of a wider diameter.

Also those roots are tiny. Mine get a soaking twice a week, and a misting every day so that some water runs down to the roots. As the roots grow so I cut down on the water.

Bil, what do you mean by a hard cane den? do you mean a Phal-Den?

I agree with you regardless of what type of den is, at this point it needs bigger roots before it is planted on its own.

dbarron · #10 04-15-2015, 07:05 PM

Maybe I misinterpreted, I took it to mean the mother plant was dead at this point and it was not an option to leave the keiki.