Dendrobium chrysotoxum care information

[Shadeflower]

Welcome to my Dendrobium Chrysotoxum thread. I am writing this post to give a bit more information on an orchid I was tempted to get but found out it was nothing like I was expecting it to be so just in case someone is tempted if I ever manage to get it to flower and show some pictures I also want to give a bit of background info on the plant itself as it was not at all what I was expecting it to be.
Sometimes that happens that there are too little pictures or information online about a variety.
If you check out the care guide on travaldo Travaldo's blog: Dendrobium chrysotoxum care and culture

It says this is a "small sized, cool to warm growing epiphyte, which can reach the height of 10-30 cm" and "can tolerate temperatures down to 10C in winter"

Ok so there I was mainly having grown phalaenopsis and I was expanding my collection branching out to try different species when this one caught my attention.

I had my heart set on a Dendrobium harveyanum which stays much smaller but they are hard to find at times but there was a sale on the chrysotoxum so into the shopping basket it went.

Ok so I got the chrysotoxum thinking it would be easy and can handle cold winters.

Well, here come the problems. What I have discovered and the care guide does mention is that it might be able to handle cold nights but it does need very warm days too. This is actually not easy to achieve outside of a greenhouse.

For smaller plants it is ok but the bigger the plant gets the harder it becomes. Space is a luxury!

So if the chrysotoxum was a compact plant like travaldo reckons then it wouldn't be an issue but I will show how big the plant really is compared to a medium sized phalaenopsis next to it.

So if you don't provide warm days to compensate for cold nights then this will happen:





It also obviously won't want to flower acting like this. So the solution?
Provide day time heat.... Ok but I'm not hooking up a 100w or even 1000w space heater every day just to keep one dendrobium happy. I've seen people do worse.
But that's beside the point.

That is not an option. Another option people resort to is moving the plant day and night but that is too much work.

So the only realistic thing is to give it a little dedicated greenhouse that gets heated.

Tada:



What we do for our orchids.. But here you can see the size difference between the phal and the dendrobium. This dendrobium is not compact! It gets the same size as a dendrobium nobile but at least a dendrobium nobile does not need warm temps in winter.

This is a little custom made greenhouse using Ikea glass shelving and insulation boards. I have a light at the top and a little 40 watt space heater on the right.

So there you go, that's my contribution on dendrobium chrysotoxum and to do your homework well before picking a new orchid to come home. Some orchids like this one should only be bought if one has a greenhouse for it. I really want to see the flowers on this one since I've been growing it for a while already so I am trying to give it better conditions and see if it improves.

[DeaC]

I can share my success story. Bought this, my 1st Den., in 4/2020 from Hausermann(USA). I know my growing conditions and do the homework before I buy anything. Plant was about 17inches tall. It's in the Callista section of Dens. Mine grows year round under 4-4ft. T5 lights. That time of yr. it got plenty of water and fert. and put out 2 blooming spikes May-June. Great fragrance and color. Now I'm getting 4 keikis which will stay put for now. Medium is large bark, some s/m and perlite for good drainage. Approaching our cooler temps and when growth is mature is when I reduce waterings but never dry. The house naturally gets cooler also(65-70 deg.) but I don't do anything xtra special. Works for me.

[DirtyCoconuts]

wow- i have been so wrong (and lazy) with this one


i bought an 8' basket full of 1-2" pbulbs and no medium....it looked healthy so i left it...after a year of nothing i added some loose medium and started adding it to the plants i water and it has started making normal(ish) sized bulbs....i now see i bought a neglected back division and basically neglected it futher lol

i have to go and repot, excuse me

[Shadeflower]

good to see you two have one.
I keep hearing how great Hauserman is, practically everythng they sell blooms the first year from what I have been hearing which I would love but we don't have no Hauserman's here and a climate that even a penguin would shrug his shoulders at so we can't grow these fancy tropical varieties as easily but I will give it my best this year.

DC, I don't know how I got you to think you needed to repot unless it was rootbound? I just repotted mine beginning of the year so the root system is good but the pot it is in is now big enough for the next 2+ years.

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

Well, my experience has been that chrysotoxum loves very bright light and heat and heavy feeding when in growth with a definite semi dormant winter cooling down.
Seemed to like my pool screen enclosure with about 30 percent shade and very good air movement plant was in an 8 inch basket when pic was taken, many moons ago.

[estación seca]

Just beautiful. I bet that smelled good!

[Shadeflower]

Thats a great picture Ben.

It made me look up what temps palm trees need and interestingly google says that palm trees can tolerate temps down to 7 degrees C at night but not under 16C during the day.

That is exactly what I have found the conditions that the chrysotoxum needs with 3 degrees added.

So that gives 19 degrees minimum during the day and 10 degrees minimum at night in winter.

The black spots appear once day time temps drop below 18 degrees C during the day- at night it can get colder.

[Roberta]

Shadeflower, it looks like you have some excellent advice here from people who are successfully growing it, and you have the growing conditions dialed in. But the seller calling it compact? Wonder what they were smoking...

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

additional notes on my den Chrysotoxum. It was grown in subtropical climate, South Florida USA, never saw temps close to freezing and was bought at HD in a baggie from Sunbulb when they used to include many species plants in their sales. I believe that it could have also easily grown in full sun as long as humidity was high.
Same culture was used for its cousin, thyrsiflorum which was mounted on tree.
I would not even begin to try and grow this plant indoors unless I had superior full spectrum lighting. It will certainly be a challenge,.

[Shadeflower]

Since we have some results it is time for an update.

The black spots I showed on this plant last year carried on spreading a little more so I snipped most of them away, changed the fertilizing, kept it warmer during the day (thanks to mini greenhouse I built) and that was the end of that problem. I've been watering it every 2 weeks. It's in a self watering pot so it practically looks after itself.

And 5 months later this is the result:

mini greenhouse shot:

bud developing on chrysotoxum:


Have a nice sunday everyone