Dendrobium - few unrotted roots - what can I do to save it?

[janie.o]

Hi everyone,

I have been a frequent guest of this site, but this is my first direct posting - perhaps someone can give me some advice!!

I bought a dendrobium (I am sorry, I am not sure what kind it is) from a grocery store on sale. It still had some beautiful flowers when I bought it, but all of the leaves had blacks spots (some kind of fungus I guess). I took it home, re-potted it (probably into a pot too large for it), and washed the leaves with ethanol. It stayed in bloom for some time, but the leaves began to yellow and eventually they all fell off. I also perhaps made the mistake of cutting off the flower spikes after they had finished blooming..

It is winter here, so I thought that perhaps the leaves falling off indicated it could be a deciduous dendrobium. But the canes started to really shrivel and turn yellow. It looks bad.

The only hope i have is the little guy that is starting to grow. There are some tiny roots growing from him. Right now I have it in a western exposure that doesn't really get direct light - perhaps it needs even more light?

So I re-potted it again last night after removing almost all the roots, as they had become completely rotted. I took some pictures of it after I watered it - the medium is not usually that drenched. I was just wondering if any of you amazing orchid-growers had some advice for me.

Thanks so much!!
janie