Dendrobium Ancep

[OrchidBro]

Looking for some experience or advice for this guy. Backstory is I got it at an orchid show back in May of this year. The vendor, I believe was Ritter's Tropical Orchids, usually has lots of baskets with babies and divisions of many different types of orchids that are like a mix and match. I think it is like 2 for $20 and 3 for $25 type thing. Anyways, got this chid as part of that and when I got home I unpotted it right away to discover absolutely no viable roots (I was expecting it though). Also, it is actually 3 separate divisions, none of them are connected. Potted it up in about 75% sphagnum moss and 25% bark and treated it with some Kelpmax (stuff is amazing BTW). It grows outside on my patio in Florida with all my other chids. I have kept it moist pretty much the entire time without letting it dry out for the most part. It didn't really do much for a while until a few weeks ago it started new growths from the nodes (kind of hard to see from the first picture but you can see some aerial roots on the right division). Then one of the little divisions sent out a single flower shortly after that. I understand when winter comes around to reduce watering but was hoping to get some advice on any other aspects of care. It gets fertilized weakly weekly.

Should I leave the new growths with aerial roots attached or try to remove them and pot them up?

Does anybody know if this would prefer a dry period in between watering during the growing season or is keeping it moist without drying out alright?

[Roberta]

I'd leave the new growths with aerial roots attached - those new roots are helping the whole plant. I think it likes to stay on the damp side through the growing season - mine lives in the greenhouse, and it stays pretty wet - and is growing rapidly. For winter, I don't really change the regimen - since the greenhouse stays fairly warm, moisture evaporates pretty quickly (it's in a basket with a bit of sphagnum) If it gets cold, perhaps back off the water. I looked up the Baker culture sheet in Orchidwiz... in habitat even in winter when it doesn't rain it gets heavy dew except for maybe a month. So it doesn't need to dry out much, but cut back the fertilizer. Looking at that habitat info, in winter it would like to be brighter (not raining means little or no cloud cover in winter)

[OrchidBro]

Thanks Roberta! Guess I will stick to my regimen and reduce the fertilizing during winter and try and get it a little more sun. Much appreciated!

[sastry]

Dendrobium anceps needs dry and low temperature winter to initiate blooms. Rest part of the growing season it does very well with Intermediate requirements. Flowering last month though not profusely in South Indian conditions, attached few pictures