Den. Nobile Culture?

[(..._...)]

Soo.. I bought this Den. Wave King 'Butterfly' a few days ago, and I still have some questions about it's winter rest period. I live in Montreal, so I cannot keep it outside past september (there is usuallu frost, even though the says are hot until october ) anyways, I am keeping it indoors, but still need to know info. on its required dry period. Should I stop watering mid Nov, and mist lightly every week or so until the blooms form, or do I wait until the bud are pretty far along in development? Also, I plan on keeping it close to the glass so that it will get cool night temperatures.

Does anyone have any tips for me?

Thanks

[Jerry Delaney]

Wave King is supposed to be one of the hybrids that supposedly does not need the cool temps to bloom. Probably it will do fine being close to the glass. Older types needed night temps down in the 40's to bloom well.
The most important thing to remember is to cut the nitrogen off in the early fall. If you fertilize it, the nitrogen will give you a nasty surprise next spring when all those shoots you thought were going to be blooms turn out to be kikis!!!

[Jerry Delaney]

Wave King is supposed to be one of the hybrids that supposedly does not need the cool temps to bloom. Probably it will do fine being close to the glass. Older types needed night temps down in the 40's to bloom well.
The most important thing to remember is to cut the nitrogen off in the early fall. If you fertilize it, the nitrogen will give you a nasty surprise next spring when all those shoots you thought were going to be blooms turn out to be kikis!!!

[(..._...)]

Originally Posted by Jerry Delaney

Wave King is supposed to be one of the hybrids that supposedly does not need the cool temps to bloom. Probably it will do fine being close to the glass. Older types needed night temps down in the 40's to bloom well.
The most important thing to remember is to cut the nitrogen off in the early fall. If you fertilize it, the nitrogen will give you a nasty surprise next spring when all those shoots you thought were going to be blooms turn out to be kikis!!!

What If I just cut out all fertilizer in the fall? or do I need to keep fertilizing it with phosphorous and potassium?

[karren]

I have grown these and have quite a collection. The abundant blooms in Jan-March are quite a thrill.

I never succeded in getting a nice bloom while they were indoors, they need all the light they can get ( full sun oudoors) for their growing season. The new growths should be light green, not dark green. These are very robust plants and can even take a light frost. But no harm is done to bring them inside for the night when it will frost, then back outside for the day.

Here is some instructions I sent with some plants I sent to a friend in upstate NY, not to far from you.

NOBILE DENDROBIUMS

These are all nobile dendrobiums from my collection of 20 different ones. They are also called soft cane dendrobiums and some are Yamamoto (a breeder in HI) dendrbiums. They are vigorous growers and temperate orchids and need a seasonal cool down to initiate blooms. The canes grow tall, 30” or more in some, and they like to be root bound. The new canes emerge from the base now and grow for this year. Next year these canes may grow some, but new canes will also emerge. Then in next year these canes will drop some or all of the leaves during the cold dry part of the year. Then when these year old canes are warmed again they bloom. Typically leafless canes bloom. The canes that grow this year are not expected to bloom until Dec 09 or Jan 10. The blooms start as buttons at the nodes, develop short stems with 1-5 blooms. The canes cane be totally covered in blooms, I’ve had plants with >200 flowers. Each node blooms only once.


• These bare root plants need to be potted when received. I would use Sphagnum moss and tiny clay pots (1.5”). Soak the moss in water then squeeze dry and pack loosely around the roots. Large plants can be potted in a bark mix. Use the smallest pot that the roots will fit in.
• After blooming, until the out door climate is freeze-free mine are in my greenhouse—high light, water nearly everyday with dilute fertilizer. They are growing roots and canes.
• Mine live outside from May- Nov. Full sun. Water/ fert. everyday until end of Sept. Oct., Nov, DRY (a real problem here outdoors, involves covering them with plastic to keep the rain off). They are not very fussy about summer temperature. I don’t let them freeze but they do need the cold nights in Oct., Nov. to initiate the bloom. When the it starts to freeze every night, some time in Nov. I bring them indoors to a bright light location. No water. After the flower buds appear I water some, maybe once every 10 days.
• I have trouble getting them enough sun, they can take full sun.
• These are frequently tall plants in small pots, very tipsy. You can hang the pots to avoid the falls in the wind.
• An unbloomed node can produce a baby plant, called a kieki. All of these are kiekis.]

Further info at Yamamoto dendrobiums

These are easy if you just stick them in the sun outdoors. May yours reward you with many, many flowers next winter.

[(..._...)]

karren: Thanks for the tips!! the leaves are actually a nice light green colour- they just appear darker in the picture. In a few weeks, I will place the plant right on the windowsil, but right now I want to make sure it adjusts properly to the light.

[tingdzin]

Karren:

Thanks for sharing your knowledge of nobiles with us. Here is a picture of one of my nobiles. Five keikis were given to me without a tag over a year ago.

As you can see, I did not give it a dry rest last winter and so I have a lot of keikis. I'm unsure of the best way to handle this situation.

If I remove the keikis and pot them what is the future for the parent canes?
[IMG]g:\dcim\102canon\img_2463

[tingdzin]

[IMG]g:dicm\102canon\img_2463[/IMG]

[tingdzin]

Sorry, newbie here.
This is the picture I meant to attach earlier.
I'm not sure whether to detach and pot up or leave on the parent plant.

[karren]

I remove kieki's when they have enough roots to survive on their own (1 root 6" long or 6 roots 1" long). I don't like the looks of the plants with roots everywhere, but there are other preferences. I have not found that treatments(such as watering in winter) produces kieki's. I have found that the same hybrid from different sources has the same tendency to make babies. Now is the time I remove them from mother plants, so that most of the summer energy goes into the mother plant and the kiekis can grow on their own in the sun.