My Start With Dendrobiums

[junglequeen]

I came home from my neighbour's place with a strange plant in a paint bucket. I'd always admired it and now he's clearing out. It jam packed the paint bucket, with more plant growing out of a split in one side. Puzzling over what it might be, I left it to soak overnight, and it suddenly struck me that this could be an orchid. The name Dendrobium came to mind, probably because of a similarity to our native Earina autumnalis (which of course is not a Dendrobium).

Next morning I managed to extricate the plant from the bucket. Ir was growing in some dark, gritty soil. I took a handsaw, unceremoniously cut it into three, and planted them in a mix of pumice and my special aged (10 years) goat dung/hay mix, disturbing the roots as little as possible.

Then I found and joined Orchid Board. Now I wonder what I've done. Please feel free to berate me. It's a noid, so it probably doesn't matter, but I'd like it to survive (thanks to this plant, I've got going in orchids again).

This happened 2 weeks ago, and the plants don't look like dying yet. I was withholding water for fear of roots rotting, but they seem to need it, and look the better for a good soaking yesterday.

Any advice most welcome.
Patricia



Height of canes : 9-12".

[phal-newbie]

Pumice and aged goat dung,,,,,lol,,,, I think I will mention this mix to my noid phals that do not seem to want to rebloom. Sorry I can't help with an ID of your plant. I am a newbie......OB members will be of help I am sure. Welcome back to orchids. I wonder if Home Depot has some aged goat dung.

[quiltergal]

It does indeed look like a Dendrobium, possibly from the Latouria section. Without a picture of the flower I can't get much closer than that.

I think I would repot into a looser medium. What I can see looks far to fine of a mix.....closer to soil than most orchids like. If you have 3 divisions you could experiment and see what works best in your conditions. Maybe leave one in your original mix. Put one in some of your lovely NZ sphag, and one in small bark or small coconut husk chunks.

If this one is from the Latouria section they don't like to dry out completely. Evenly moist but not sopping wet either.

[junglequeen]

Originally Posted by phal-newbie

Pumice and aged goat dung,,,,,lol,,,, I think I will mention this mix to my noid phals that do not seem to want to rebloom. Sorry I can't help with an ID of your plant. I am a newbie......OB members will be of help I am sure. Welcome back to orchids. I wonder if Home Depot has some aged goat dung.

It's wonderful stuff for many "ordinary" plants, especially the acid lovers, and having lots of it, I use it quite freely in my garden. If I were anywhere near you, you would be welcome to a sackful - great for veggies too! Anyway, if I take Terri's advice and do some split testing, I'll be able to report back on whether it's any good for orchids or not .

[junglequeen]

Originally Posted by quiltergal

It does indeed look like a Dendrobium, possibly from the Latouria section. Without a picture of the flower I can't get much closer than that.

I think I would repot into a looser medium. What I can see looks far to fine of a mix.....closer to soil than most orchids like. If you have 3 divisions you could experiment and see what works best in your conditions. Maybe leave one in your original mix. Put one in some of your lovely NZ sphag, and one in small bark or small coconut husk chunks.

If this one is from the Latouria section they don't like to dry out completely. Evenly moist but not sopping wet either.

Many thanks for this great advice. I've since bought a bag of Orchid Mix for some more recent purchases (ah me!), so I'll put one in that, and will try to get the existing soil off it first with the help of a hose. I'll also investigate sphagnum.

From memory, the flowers on this were in racemes, and purple/blue in color. For sure I will be taking and posting photos when (or if) these plants flower again! Thank you .

[Wrebbitrocks]

i really have no knowledge in the repotting department lol but from what ive read is that orchids tailor their roots to their medium so id repot any orchid back into the same kind of medium it was in before then when it starts to make new roots, repot it into the medium of your choice because the new roots will tailor themselves to it, the old ones will die.

[junglequeen]

Originally Posted by Wrebbitrocks

i really have no knowledge in the repotting department lol but from what ive read is that orchids tailor their roots to their medium so id repot any orchid back into the same kind of medium it was in before then when it starts to make new roots, repot it into the medium of your choice because the new roots will tailor themselves to it, the old ones will die.

Well, lets hope they can manage to tailor their roots to my crazy repotting efforts - I'm definitely going to leave one lot "as is'. Fortunately, this seems to be a pretty hardy orchid, so it might be quite forgiving. It will be most interesting to see what happens.

[RobS]

This should be a Dendrobium x delicatum, Den. kingianum or one of their hybrids.

They are fairly easy orchids I have 2 that I grow outside during summer and take inside as soon as temperatures drop below 5-10 Celsius at night. After the new growths mature reduce watering and keep at a cooler temperature until the flower stems appear (if the temperature is to high they turn into shoots). Don't let the stem dry out to much

[junglequeen]

Originally Posted by RobS

This should be a Dendrobium x delicatum, Den. kingianum or one of their hybrids.

They are fairly easy orchids I have 2 that I grow outside during summer and take inside as soon as temperatures drop below 5-10 Celsius at night. After the new growths mature reduce watering and keep at a cooler temperature until the flower stems appear (if the temperature is to high they turn into shoots). Don't let the stem dry out to much

Thank you very much for this advice Rob - I will do that. Thanks for help with the ID too!