Deciduous Dendrobiums - Dendrobium Class 2

[brsucculents]

I was reading this in the local newsletter:

"Local lore has it to water and fertilizer your deciduous Dendrobiums for the last time on Halloween."

The AOS culture sheet has:

"... water and fertilize heavily from when roots appear until top leaf appears on canes."

The AOS sheet sounds like the best advice since the actual plant is signalling "I'm done growing". It probably coincides closely with Halloween for this area. Would that be the best time to stop watering the Calista Group too?

[801229001]

I usually water the callista group less instead of giving them a totally dry rest because they are not deciduous.

[smweaver]

I too water species within the callista group less often instead of giving a strictly dry rest. The combination of less (as opposed to no) water, cooler temperatures and maximum light always triggers my Dendrobium chrysotoxum to bloom--without it losing any of its leaves over the winter.

The AOS recommendations you cited make more sense than any local lore (which I'm skeptical of anyway).

It would be interesting to find out what others do with their dendrobiums over the winter. So hopefully you'll get some more responses.