Dendrobium Superstar 'Dandy' x Ise 'Pearl'

[UnstuckinTime]

Amazing flowers, with a beautiful scent. I grow this guy mounted, and he seems to love it. The plant is making a bunch of keiki's which concerns me that the plant might think it's dyeing. Thoughts?

Thanks for looking,
CJ

[RosieC]

Really lovely!

[Gthumbz89]

Awesome plant!! I'm always jealous of dendrobiums. I can never keep them alive. I love the delicate pastel colors and the overall bamboo like quality of these plants. Thanks for sharing.

[WhiteRabbit]

Lovely!

[Fairorchids]

It is common for nobile type Dendrobiums to throw a lot of keikis in lieu of flowers. Means that it was not quite cool & dry enough during rest period.

[UnstuckinTime]

Originally Posted by Fairorchids

It is common for nobile type Dendrobiums to throw a lot of keikis in lieu of flowers. Means that it was not quite cool & dry enough during rest period.

Thanks for the insight, next year I will absolutely keep it drier. Although, I don't know if I can let it get colder, it was into the 50's (*F) at times... But drier, that I can do!!

Thank you everyone for your kind comments

[gnathaniel]

Beautiful! That's one of my favorite hybrids I've seen in this group, nicely photographed too.

I'll be the contrarian here and suggest that you instead try to keep it a little moister during the winter. A large percentage of this plant's ancestry is Den. moniliforme, which in natural habitat actually gets decent amounts of water throughout the winter (per Bakers' culture sheet plus some other corroborating sources). The standard advice to keep these bone-dry through the winter works okay for many, but with some exceptions seems more tolerated than preferred by most species/hybrids of this section. That advice is also most pertinent to potted/basketed plants grown in higher-humidity locales like greenhouses, far less likely to suffer from dehydration stress than are indoor-grown mounted ones.

In my limited experience, keiki production is relatively unaffected by winter moisture and is more likely some combination of:

--natural tendency--some species/hybrids, and certain individuals within those greges, are inherently more or less likely to grow this way--some will frequently do so no matter how you grow them, others almost never

--fertilizer levels, particularly nitrogen--ceasing fertilizer in the winter seems more important than ceasing water, and many plants in this group seem more keiki-prone when fertilized heavily

--root damage, which can be from too much/not enough water, overly salty water (incl residual fertilizer salts), mechanical damage (often a product of repotting stress), etc.

--possibly various other factors like diurnal temp range

[UnstuckinTime]

gnathaniel,

That's very interesting, because I would water this specimen maybe once every few days, or there abouts. Meanwhile, all my other mounts got watered daily. There was, however, significant root die-back a few months ago, at which point I switched to watering once a week, or less. As soon as the days started getting longer, it started developing buds, and I picked up watering again. I attributed the root death to the deciduous nature of these hybrids, but it is certainly possible that it was an issue with watering. I will be relieved when the next pseudobulb starts growing.

[catwalker808]

We made this cross several times during the past 25+ years. We also registered it as Den Super Ise. It's a cross between a standard type nobile hybrid Den Super Star, which blooms intermediate to cool, and a smaller Den moniliforme hybrid, which is much smaller & which blooms well even on the warm side on intermediate.

This hybrid was designed to be much smaller than a standard nobile hybrid & also to bloom easily under higher than cool temps. 60 -62 F for a week or more seems to trigger bud initiation, if canes are mature & hardened off. Customers have told us that they have bloomed plants 2-3 times a year, given those conditions.

If plants experience a true winter, they will be fairly deciduous. If conditions are warm & bright enough, they can maintain growth (although slower in cooler months).

This hybrid needs water & well-drained conditions. If your location experiences significant seasonal change in fall, then plants should continue receiving water, but no fertilizer from September (in the northern hemisphere). Nitrogen, especially, will interfere with bud formation. The keikis form from the same nodes where buds would normally form. Or buds initiate & change into keikis. The fertilizer can disrupt blooming & cause this keiki formation.