Potted dendrobium dropping leaves

[Chunker37]

I have a dendrobium that is dropping most of its leaves. It's been inside all winter in a relatively dormant stage. I placed it outside last week during a rainstorm so it could get some natural watering. About two days later I noticed leaves falling off. I've lost about half the leaves that were on it prior to getting the rainwater.

Being relatively new to growing orchids and only having this one for almost a year now I am wondering if this is normal? Will new leaves take the place of the old ones? Should I remove the canes which have no leaves? I'll try to attach the photo of a bloom from last year so you can see it when it was healthy.



Any suggestions?

Thanks, Dave

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Are you sure that's a Dendrobium?

It looks like a Cattleya.

Can you post a pic of the entire plant?

[camille1585]

Either you uploaded the wrong pic or you have the ID wrong, that plant is a cattleya of some sort. Certainly not a dendrobium.

It's difficult to answer your question without knowing which type of orchid it is. For some Dens leaf drop can be normal, but for catts there's usually something going on.

[Chunker37]

I got this orchid from a friend and I thought that is what she said it was. I'll take photo of the entire plant and post later. Thanks for the quick responses.

FYI, the leaves are super stiff and there are only 2 per cane. Once it blooms then that cane doesn't change or bloom again. Another cane will shoot out and a bloom will form on that. The bloom has a nice citrus smell.

Looked online and found images of cattleya orchids that look exactly like the one one I have. Now I know it's not a dend. Thanks for clearing that up.

[camille1585]

Definitely sounds like Cattleya then, and it shouldn't be dropping its leaves like that. One once in a while is fine, but half of them.

I don't know what your temps are now, but it could be that being outside in the rain at this time of year was just too cold for it. Like Philip says, a pic of the entire plant would be helpful in trying to figure out what is going on.

[Chunker37]

Ok, here is a photo of the orchid. I unpotted it to see what might be going on. The medium was damp, but on the dry side. It's 60 degrees today and rainy so I'm letting it get some more rain unpotted.

Here are the roots:



Here is the whole plant:

[Zoi2]

For my 2 cents: 60 degrees is a bit too chilly to be in the rain. Catts as well as other orchids prefer luke warm water. What was this plant potted in?
Joann

[Chunker37]

I potted it up in coconut husk chips, volcanic rock, granite chips, sponge rock, pea gravel, and small charcoal pieces. I'm thinking that the colder rain from last week did it in. I'll keep it inside until warmer weather arrives.

[gnathaniel]

Hard to tell because the charcoal may have stained them, but those roots look pretty gone for the most part. You might want to sort through them and remove most of the dead ones before you repot, else they'll just rot and possibly start the rhizome rotting too.

--Nat

[Chunker37]

So the plan is to keep it warm and on the dry side. This weekend I'll check to roots and prune off the mushy ones. Thanks for all the responses.