tree mount Dendrobium Speciosum rain watering

[jpsworld]

Hello, my past acc was "orchiteer" but have lost my info. So I started this one.

I mounted a Den. Speciosum in a set of palm trees in my backyard about 3 months ago. Since I've seen great root growth and leaves tell me lighting is optimal. (morn-midday bright sun rest of the day bright shade) In the summer I watered once a week, but now in SoCal as winter is elbowing in, almost every weekend it has poured rain 2 days in a row.

My real question is how this excess watering will affect my bloom in the spring(mature)? What Actions can I take to help dry it if need be?

[estación seca]

I wonder whether the moderators can merge accounts? I don't know the answer to your question, but winter rainfall in its natural habitat is not unknown.

[WhiteRabbit]

My potted speciosum has been sitting out in all the rain we've been getting lately here in the SF Bay area - just noticed a couple of spikes on it today (one with the beginning of buds). First spikes for me on this plant (I got it a year and a half ago ?). So - I don't have much experience with the species, but I know that the conventional wisdom for kingianum is the same - grow dry in winter, but I water my kingi regularly in winter (tho less so than while it's growing), and it blooms like crazy (it is always already growing spikes in winter; blooms in late winter / early spring), so I have wondered if the same could be true for speciosum ... I hadn't planned on leaving mine out in all the rain, but life has been interfering with my orchid stuff, and so it just got left out.

[epiphyte78]

The speciosum var hillii on my lemon tree seems to bloom each year while the one (var capricornicum) on my Cedar tree seems to take a break every other year. I haven't really noticed a correlation between more rain and less blooms though.

Actually, lately, I've been trying to figure out which of my orchids wants to continue growing during the winter. One pretty obvious clue is active root tips.

For the longest time I simply drastically reduced watering during the winter. But then, thanks to Aloe Hercules, I got very interested in plants that grew all year long here in SoCal. So now I'm trying to identify and consolidate my more productive orchids so that I can experiment with continuing to give them more or less regular water during winter.

I mentioned this to my friend in Santa Barbara who has been growing a gazillion orchids outdoors for a gazillion years. To my surprise he said that he pretty much continued to regularly water his orchids over winter. So I asked him to try and keep track this winter of which of his orchids have active root tips.

Hmmm... I should mention that one reason to try and drastically reduce water during winter is to encourage the orchids to go into rest mode. New growth is generally more susceptible to cold damage in the case of frosts. It doesn't regularly freeze in my area so I figured that I could try and experiment with continuing to water some that might benefit from it.

All else being equal... more productive orchids are better than less productive orchids. I'm guessing that Golden Peacock might be an example of a more productive orchid. This last summer... it completed its growth cycle and bloomed. After it bloomed it immediately started producing a new shoot which is now in spike. If I gave it fertilizer I'm guessing that it could easily complete two growth/bloom cycles in one year.

[rosalie]

Many of my speciosums and hybrids are now spiking.
Last year, with little rain, I saw few spikes.
I think it is okay to have it get all that rain,specially since it is mounted.