Dendrobium nobile- odd growth cycle?

[carnegieo575]

Hi guys,

Hopefully someone with some experience over time with Dendrobium nobiles can chime in here. Based on everything I read about them for their growth cycle, mine doesn’t seem follow it. I live in Wisconsin zone 5a. It’s a no-id. I bought it last year in March from a greenhouse while it was in full bloom. Many blooms on all canes. When I got it with the blooms, it had 3 new canes a few inches tall (not keikis) at the time as well. After the blooms faded and the weather warmed up, I repotted, let it recover, then had it outdoors by June. It grew lots of roots and the new canes I mentioned grew their last leaves and stopped growing probably mid July. I kept caring as normal with good light(some direct, no burning) good humidity and plenty of water, some light fertilizer until weather cooled toward the end of August. I began to decrease watering frequency until I had to bring it inside in October, when we started getting frequent hard freezes. Brought it to the coolest place in my home in my basement with as much light as I could give it, which is not all that much in that window that time of year (N/NW.) Watered sparingly. Probably around December I saw the spike nodes appearing, only on two canes. They blasted on one cane (I presume because of lack of water despite general advice) but the other one opened beautifully a few days ago. Around the same time as the flower spikes emerged, 3 new canes began to appear (again not keikis.) as you can see in the pics how large the new growths are alongside the blooms and we’re in February. I’ve been increasing watering over the last month or so to prevent canes from shriveling. Also brought to a brighter, warmer window. Everything I read says the new growths appear later in the spring and mature through the end of Summer, go through winter rest, bloom, repeat. But mine seems to begin to grow flower spikes and new foliage at the same time, mature growths by midsummer, stop growing, repeat. It looks like a beautiful and healthy plant, but seems weird the new growths appear so early and I got so few blooms. But when I got it from the grower it also had the new progressed growths alongside the blooms. I’m wondering what the deal is, and any tips you may have to have better blooms. My guess is that the temp drop and cooling in the fall was enough, and I should’ve just had it in a brighter, warmer window the whole winter rather than concentrating on keeping it cooler? Either way the new growths look great and light green despite being in a darker window. Let me know what you think, thanks for reading my history with this plant haha.

[rbarata]

We need your temp values. I suspect you're giving it a too warm temp.

[carnegieo575]

I’ll provide my best guess as to the average temps where the plant was kept month to month.

(Indoors, little temperature variation between day and night)
January: mid 50s
February: mid 50s
March: low 60s
April: low to mid 60s
May: mid to upper 60s

(Move outdoors)
June: avg 50s at night, 78 in the day
July: 50s/60s at night, high 70s/low 80s day
August: similar to July
September: low 50s at night, high 60s/low 70s day
October: 30s at night, 50s in the day

(Move back indoors because it starts to get into the 20s or colder at night)
November: just starting to cool back down inside, mid 60s
December: low 60s

[rbarata]

So, when you move it back inside the overall temps gets higher. I'm not sure how the plant "interpret" that but probably might "think" it's beginning of spring.
Maybe you should move it inside a bit earlier.

[JScott]

I used to have a fantastic nobile, Dendrobium Super Model 'Platinum'. When I moved to Texas I didn't immediately know what my orchid accommodations would be like, and it was huge, so I gave it to a friend. I would put it outside in early spring as soon as the night temperatures were no longer freezing, like in March, and I kept it outside until November when the nights started to get close to freezing. Then on cool days, I would put it back outside for a while to enjoy the cool temps, and bring it back in at night before it froze. The thing is, it NEVER stopped growing. As soon as the new canes would mature, another set of new canes would start to grow with no rest period or break. It bloomed in about January. In the winter, I reduced watering because it just dried out more slowly, but I never stopped watering because it never stopped growing. I don't know if maybe some of these hybrids are so complex with so many different species in the background that they don't follow the typical nobile growth cycle, but I paid more attention to what the plant was doing than what season it was. If the plant has new growths forming, keep watering (but adjust for lower temperatures and slower drying time). Orchids will do what they want, and may not always follow the expected calendar growth cycle.

[Jeff214]

The particular Den nobile hybrid I have flowers at the exact time each year (Feb) but it sends out new growth all year long. Most notably in the spring and a second flush in the fall. The new growths never seem to bother how well it blooms.

I can't say much about your specific hybrid... but it looks healthy.
Were you concerned about something in particular?

[carnegieo575]

I think you guys might be onto something! Mainly because when I bought it last March from the grower it was in full bloom with half-grown canes already. Like it is now, minus the full set of blooms. So it might just be something this type specifically does. I suspect it needed more light and water while it was in cooler temps over winter and doesn’t follow the textbook “winter rest” you always read about. The tag it came with didn’t mention anything like it in the care either so I wonder if it’s one of those hybrids that doesn’t need it. I think I’ll do an experiment this year- continue care as normal through spring and summer, then have it adapt to my house temps as my house cools rather than keeping it outside till it freezes and see if it initiates blooming like my Paphs and Phals. Jeff my only concern was that I had one flower spike with 3 blooms vs. canes full of them, and trying to pinpoint where I may have gone wrong, especially because this one’s particular growth pattern doesn’t seem to be what you read about if you look up Nobiles. This is my first Dendrobium so it’s a little bit of an oddball to me. They’re not common in stores here in WI. We ONLY seem to get Phals. I order everything else online. I’ll post back next year to see what the verdict is! Anyway, thanks for taking a look.