Dendrobium aphyllum care

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Bump

[WaterWitchin]

What's the reason for the bump DoM? You have an issue with one? Pretty old thread...

[Dusty Ol' Man]

I attended a meeting of my local orchid society and won a division of one in the raffle. I was looking for more care information than was given and found this thread. The bump was so I could find it easily and read more. The temp range for this is very wide and I wanted to see if anyone has said anything about variations from the accepted culture.

[Roberta]

I can only say what works for me (not sure what standard culture is) - it lives outside (southern California, winter lows in the low 40's F, occasionally dipping down to mid 30's F) In winter, dry it out, it's deciduous. (A bit of water occasionally if weather is very dry, but it does need to rest - no fertilizer) Blooms in the spring on old canes. (Don't cut anything that isn't completely shriveled, light brown and brittle... hard to tell what is dead and what isn't so err on the side of leaving anything ambiguous) Resume watering as soon as you see signs of new growth. In summer, bright shade or filtered sun, water well, fertilize regularly. If you can accommodate growing mounted plants, this one does very well mounted. (Roots don't get particularly intimate with the mount, it mostly is for having having a way to hang it)

DOM, I would expect that this would do very well for you just hanging outside. If it gets very cold in winter, make sure it is dry and I expect that it will be fine. Your summer rain, heat and humidity should be perfect for it.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Thanks Roberta. It can get into the 20s here on occasion, so I'll have to watch for that. There are days I can't water due to a crazy work schedule, and my giant bottle brush was devastated by the last hard freeze we had. I may be able to hang it on the new gazebo, once that's up.

[Roberta]

If it gets much below freezing, bring into the house. It will be leafless, not need water and not take up much room so won't need any special accommodations for a few days or weeks.

[voyager]

As usual for me, I'm coming into a thread a bit late.
I'm responding to the original post with its concerns about temoperature along with other growing requirements for orchids.

One thing to keep in mind, orchid cultivation requirements are little more than a best guess as what to try to setup for them.
They are not rigid rerquirements.
One needs to experiment a bit to see what they can provide that meets an orchid's needs.
Individual plants can have different needs fron the average in their species.

I maintained winter night temps no lower that 65°F with days about 72°F using a programable thermostat that allowed setting day and night temps for summer and winter.
Summers had higher day temps, especially with doors being left open for higher temps and air circulation with fan use mandatory in winters.
I also used a humidifier set on high to offset the cold dry sub zero winter days.
It never did a very good job, but it did help.
Day length varried from 19 hrs summer to 4 hours winter.

After all, I lived there too and had to provide conditions I could live with.
My experiences convinced me that many orchids, Dendrobiums in particular, do quite well at normal houdehold temps.
Some of these plants are as much as 15 years old.
Some ended up being 20 years old by the time I divested myself of orchids and left AK.

Scan0138Sm.jpg
The plants on the LH end of the top 2 rows are Den. aphyllums, 2 of the 3 in the next pic.

Scan0087Sm.jpg

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by voyager

After all, I lived there too

I see the snow in the picture, but I didn't catch where this was taken. Our plans include a move to northern Michigan.

[voyager]

I was in Anchorage, 61°N.
In fact, all my orchid growing was in Anchorage.
Winters lasted 6 to 7 months of the year.
I did work in other areas of the state on occasion, always returning for home and orchid care.

They have to be protected.
Opening doors and windows can kill orchids quickly.

This is only 1 of 3 windows in the living room.
I also used smaller windows in 2 bedrooms.
I kept as many as 75 orchids in-home.

The biggest problem was watering them almost daily for years inside the house without doing water damage.
That's why I only grow outside throughout the yard mounted on trees now.

I still love orchids.
But, I'm burnt out on them.
I'll never work with them again like I did back then.
I won't even have a greenhouse now.