Dendrobium jenkinsii

[wintergirl]

Originally Posted by Pattywack

Wintergirl your plant has grown quite a lot! Looks great and I'll bet you can't wait for flowers.

Thanks! What I like between the 2 pictures is how shriveled the pseudobulbs are in the first picture. They had been in Florida outside. Now they are inside and hand watered like a spoiled plant. Maybe pbulbs in some orchids stay shriveled but these plump up (oh the white powder is ground up egg shells I had just put in the day before.)

[estación seca]

I bought a tiny, tiny seedling summer 2015 and left it in its tiny, tiny pot. It did nothing.

I heard a lecture with mention this plant is cold (low 40s F / 5C) and wet (very heavy, drenching dew, so the ground is wet and slippery constantly, though there is no rain) every night all winter in habitat. (Northeast Burma.) The lecturer said not to leave them dry all winter, but they do need to get cold. I mounted it directly on a branch with no moss last fall and began soaking it overnight almost every night. The pseudobulbs plumped up. This spring it began growing. If I don't soak it overnight at least every few days it stops growing. As long as I keep soaking it, it keeps making new growths. It's now tiny instead of tiny, tiny.

I bet if you soaked the plant for an hour you could find a good-sized branch and bend the plant around it. Tie it fairly firmly so the rhizomes are as close to the branch as possible. New roots will eventually grow and attach firmly.

u_bada I wonder whether you watered enough? Species Dens often have tiny little roots, and don't hold much water, compared to Cattleya hybrids with their huge sausage roots.

[Pattywack]

estacion seca, thanks for the tips. I've seen both dry winter rest and not so dry. I think I'll continue to water lightly and find a cool area for it. Might need to hang out in our basement or garage.

I hope yours continues to grow for you. It is a neat Dendrobium and much different than my others. I unpotted it and it was mostly in perlite with a bit of bark and charcoal. Not one rotten root, all nice and white and firm. As soon as I mist the roots they green up.

I potted it into a basket, lined slightly with coco fiber and added bark, charcoal and perlite. A few roots are outside of the basket from the growth that is crawling out. It has some room still in the basket and I hope it continues to grow outside of it. I'm happy, hope the jenkinsii is too! Here is a pic or two but no doubt sideways.

[Pattywack]

Another sideways shot.

[estación seca]

Looks just great!

[u bada]

Thanks for the tips as always, estacion! Yeah, probably didn't water enough... actually I still have a very tiny tiny piece of it that survived, it's in a baggy with sphag with the other "hopefuls"... doesn't have roots, I guess if it forms roots I will water.

hmmm... so I have other dens from southeast asia, and perhaps I do need to water those more and see what happens... the unicum had a new growth that grew then stopped half length than the last mature pb (there's only 2 other pbs), then bush snails ate the few roots it had, then nothing for months... now just decided on two new growths, would have been happy with one, but we'll see if it has enough power to mature two, and then grow roots in which case i will soak and soak and see what happens.

Patty, the new basket and repot look great! I think basket culture is probably the best method to grow most orchids in, but because I grow mini's and have limited space, I don't have enough room for the smallest size of wood basket people make! argh.

[wintergirl]

It looks great!

[Pattywack]

Thank you estacion seca, it should have quite a bit of room to grow. It has a lot of roots and after removing the old mix, the roots had more than enough room in the basket and will easily be able to grow through the basket.

---------- Post added at 08:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 PM ----------

u bada, Thank you, I really like the baskets. I have two others with a Pleurothallis prolifera in one and a Stelis morganii in the other. Mine are all 4" baskets and I hang them in my windows in our kitchen. Pretty easy to hang them. My windowsills are kind of full of minis and I'm pretty full in my little greenhouse and terrarium. Hanging baskets give me more room!

---------- Post added at 08:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:07 PM ----------

Wintergirl, thanks! I'm happy with it. I was afraid the one longer growth might be a problem but it really just fell into place. There was one side of its pot that was clear of overhanging growth and hopefully that area will fill in now.