New Dendrobiums

[Orchidinterests]

Hello, 6 months into Orchids. I recieved 8 bare root Dendrobiums un named the other day. Someone was just getting rid of them. I have been doing mostly Phals in my shade house. Unlike the Phals, the Dens have smaller brown roots, not the plump green roots the Phals have. I mount a lot of my Phals. Can I mount the Dens too?

Thanks
Orchid.

[justatypn]

Orchidinterests .. Aboard...The OB is a great place and a wonderful bunch of members. We have a nightly chat not that we always stay on task but we welcome you to visit. Please see the gallery area and submit pictures of your chids to share with us all and visa versa ... so back to your question....

Nobile and Non-Nobile Types: Repotting and dividing should be undertaken in the spring either immediately after flowering or just as new growth starts. These plants need the roots confining and should always be under potted rather than over potted as this will help prevent over watering. These plants produce an enormous amount of aerial roots and so are ideal candidates for growing in many ways other than pots. They can be mounted on cork bark or even grown over a tree stump, they will become top heavy though but thanks to the abundance of anchoring roots should be stable by the following season after mounting.

My personal experience with Dends, right now mine have a mind of there own and giving me some back talk : about there enviroment. I grow indoors and they needed a bit of adjustment and finally adapting. I do not expect them to share in blooming this year but watch out, next year hopefully they will share with me my hard earned work...lol. Please keep us posted on your mounting dend experience.

[Sandra Billeter]

Dens do very well for us and here is what we do. Cheryl gave you some really good advice. If you pot them, use the smallest pot you can get them into. We have some mounted and they do well. We also have some potted in expanded clay balls as the total medium and some in mesh pots. They all get the same care and most are doing well. Dens will need much more light than your Phals so you won't be able to grow them side by side. We heard a couple months ago that Dens don't like high nitrogen fertilizers so we only fertilize them with bloom booster now and we think we see a significant difference in their response. There is no science here, just impressions. The other point is that nobile type Dens need a cool down/dry out period of 2 to 3 months in the fall in order to bloom well in the spring. The phalenopsis type Dens don't like that. Your problem is that you don't know what you've got and I don't know of any way to tell you how to tell them apart at this stage. So, I would suggest that you just water and fertilize year round and see which ones bloom. The phalenopsis Dens will put out spikes with multiple blooms. If you have any that don't do that, then you might try giving them a Fall cool down/dry out period next year and see if that works for them. Hope this helps.

Sandra in South Carolina