Overwatered dendrobium - would base heat be helpful?

[Pippa]

I have just rescued a dendrobium whose previous owner must have thought it was a bog plant - root ball is absolutely saturated! Most of the roots seem white & firm though, so I am hopeful.

I was just wondering whether it was worth putting it onto the base part of my propagator (that I use for raising veg seedlings and cuttings) to dry it out a bit faster -or would this be too hot for it? I've put it by a north-facing window, which is my only option as I don't want it near any of my other orchids until I know it isn't diseased, but the room isn't nearly as warm as the south facing one where all the other orchids are.

---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 PM ----------

Sorry, forgot to say it is a Dendrobium Sa-nook

[jcec1]

I would take it out of it's pot, and if it is in bark sit it on a wad of newspaper to wick away the water, air getting to the roots would be beneficial. If it is in moss, I would repot into bark. If the plant is fairly small then it should dry out fairly quickly. I wouldn't sit it in a propagator just because I don't like changing too many variables at once which will stress the plant. Good idea to keep it isolated though.

[Pippa]

Thank you for your advice. It is now sitting on some paper which seems to be wicking the moisture away nicely.

It's not in bark or moss - it looks like a kind of minced up coir fibre - would that be ok for it? My other dendrobium seems to be in the same stuff and has been doing really well. Do you think I should repot the overwatered one into bark or just wait for it to dry out? Apart from the two mature stems, it has two tiny ones growing up from the base which all look healthy.

[jcec1]

If you have success in a coir medium with your other one I would be inclined to keep it in that, why fix what isn't broken 😉.

[rbarata]

Do you think I should repot the overwatered one into bark or just wait for it to dry out? Apart from the two mature stems, it has two tiny ones growing up from the base which all look healthy.

It tells me it's now the time to repot it...in medium size bark (a photo would be helpful to see the plant size). I don't know but coir fiber might not be a durable medium. With time and water it will degrade faster than bark, I think.

[Pippa]

Thanks for the advice. The rootball is now more like I would expect it to be a couple of days after watering, so the paper has really helped dry it out. It's looking quite perky now!

[Pippa]

Update - during the drying out process the canes gradually lost all their leaves apart from a couple each at the top of two of the canes. It sat there for ages without doing anything, but now it has loads of lovely white roots and three tiny new growths coming up from the base - between one and two inches long. BUT...it also has an inch-long keiki on the worst-looking cane (the totally leafless and shrivelled one). Should I remove the keiki so that the plants energy goes into the baby canes or shall I leave the keiki in case the baby canes don't make it. The keiki is about as big & strong as the middle one of the three baby canes.