best time to cut den keikis?

[Shadeflower]

Hey Tmoney,
I have come to simiar conclusions to you about dendrobium Nobile hybrids.

I can recommend the Dendrobium Love Memory "Fizz" as that stays half the size of most nobile hybrids.

But like I posted about dendrobiums, by the time you get them to flower you will be overrun with keiki's.

They like to reproduce via keiki's far more than they like flowering. People say it is fertilizing or wrong temps that cause keiki's but I think the more important question is can one stop a dendrobium producing keiki's because although people often blame the grower for having done something wrong to me stopping a dendrobium from making keiki's is like trying to stop a cockerel from crowing in the morning.

Nobiles also get big, like Cattleya size big. The canes end up going all over the place.

It is amazing how fast they grow, like my Nobiles are my fastest growers but in turn they need to be watered the most too.

And they take up soo much space you could have 8 phals in the space that one Dendrobium Nobile takes up...

I hate growing outside. Wind blows over the pots. Rain can be an issue.

Slugs will hitchhike a ride back every time.

Considering the outcome of this one does not matter that much and we have since discovered that nobiles do not need the 14 degrees to flower I would suggest to leave this one as is.

The plant will want to flower in February. That is what it is currently gearing up to do as are my Nobiles.

Sticking it outside now will just "trick" it to flower 2 months early.

Ok... then what. What will the plant do in February when it is meant to be flowering?
I can predict it will be confused, it will get stressed and you guessed it what does a stressed Dendrobium do? It produces keiki's

[tmoney]

hahaah, oh man. im glad im not alone in my feelings towards this group. i know i should reach any conclusions with a sample size of n=1. but yes, besides your greater experience with dendros, i feel exactly the same way on all accounts. flowers in feb would be nice! then i can feel accomplished with it and not devote so much emotional energy to it!

[YetAnotherOrchidNut]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

They like to reproduce via keiki's

Its a nice survival technique. Want to clone your Den Nobile? Cut a cane. Leave it on a shelf somewhere where it gets light. Wait. Remove keikis, plant, enjoy.

I'm saving a Den King Dragon that I almost killed this way. I found that using pieces of the cane embedded in fine bark produced good results in producing "emergency keikis". I now have 6x more king dragons than i started with, all the size my little finger. Long way to go. :-)

Also, as for the cold versus light question I am part of an experiment right now, unintentionally, on this subject. I purchased a Dendrobium Oriental Smile from a flower shop around the corner, the owner couldn't sell his last one as it had dropped its flowers so he decided to keep it. He has his outside, I have mine inside. His has dropped all leaves and only grew a few pseudo-bulbs, mine has not dropped any and grew about 8-10 or more new canes. I have two "keiki points" showing, but no actual harvestable keikis forming (eg no roots or leaves). I didnt notice his keiki action. So in spring we will have two clones raised the two ways to compare in terms of flowering.

Based on Roberta's advice in this thread I will cut back fertilizer starting now till the spring, even though it feels /wrong/ to starve my children.

[estación seca]

The Yamamoto Web site said overfertlilizing is the main cause of poor flowering/keiki production. They suggested not fertilizing at all after mid to late summer.