Spikes Dendrobium aggregatum Now What?

[Cattleya17]

Hello all! My aggregatum has produced three spikes. I have forgotten about the plant to be honest 😅. So today I saw it in the corner and picked it up for a once over and noticed three protrusions I'd never seen before in the 3 years I've had the plant. I've tried following the rest period deal for a while with no results so I have no idea what I did differently this time around that has caused it to make spikes. What should I do now? Should I water? Or just leave things the way it is: forgotten about?

I really want to see this bloom and well your help would be appreciated!

[Leafmite]

Maybe you accidentally were watering it with the rest of your collection?

I couldn't get mine to bloom for four years and then I was at one of my OS meetings and a member brought hers in, covered in spikes of blooms. When I asked her about the rest, she asked, "What rest?" The next winter, I watered it like my Cattleyas and, voila...blooms. I grow under lights during the winter (as does she) so the orchids are probably drier anyway.
Good luck! They really put on a show even if it doesn't last long. Mine had a bit of a sweet, appealing fragrance.
We had a weird summer and my aggregatum, like all my Cattleyas, is putting out new growth right now. Oh well.

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Win Winmaw spoke to our club in 2014 about the orchids of the Shan Plateau in eastern Burma, where he was born. He took the photos in the winter. He showed a very large tree with the trunk completely covered with D. aggregatum. There must have been many thousands of pounds/kilos/whatever of plant on the tree. He said it grows on the mountains near his town at a higher altitude; there is never any frost, but winter nights are in the 40F / 4C range; it is extremely windy at night, to the point it can be hard to stand up on the wet ground; it rains only in the summer, but there is so much winter dew, every night, that everything was cold and dripping wet day and night. So I think the dry winter rest is a myth propagated by people who read only rainfall charts.

[Cattleya17]

That is very interesting!! This info made me realize I think I know what was different. We have been doing renovations on our house so I had to leave the plants outside a couple weeks longer than I would normally. It was chilly and rainy a few nights. Then when it got to cold at night I placed them in our basement which was chilly also for about another week.

That was around 1 month ago. I brought the plants back upstairs from the basement to their winter home on October 22nd. It has not been touched with water since then though. This is what the spikes look like now. So I should maybe give it some water now?


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Mine is still a seedling, but based on what I heard in that talk, I would water and keep it cool.

[Leafmite]

I don't think temperature is too much of a concern but keeping it cooler might help to extend the short blooming period. Mine goes under the lights for the winter so it is warm during the day and much cooler at night. The OS member grows all her orchids in her nice, toasty basement so they are warm all winter long. Not very helpful, am I?

[Cattleya17]

So things are progressing nicely! The three spikes have about 13 buds each. I kept things exactly the same and began watering. hope they open soon!!!


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How exciting! Looking forward to flower photos.