HELP needed with a rescue (and with a rough ID)

[Orchid Whisperer]

A co-worker's husband told me about an orchid that he had that was struggling (one of several plants given to him by a friend). I agreed to have a look at it, see if I could help.

First off, what is it? Here's a couple pictures:



From the plant morphology, I am thinking some type of Dendrobium. Longest cane is roughly 6 inches (15 cm), longest leaf roughly 4 inches (10 cm), widest cane about 0.5 cm (0.2 inches) near the top, narrower toward the base. There is no indication that this plant has bloomed any time recently.

I know a species determination is not possible, any idea what category to place it in for cultural purposes?

OK, on to cultural concerns. First thing I plan to change, it appears seriously over-potted. I will re-pot into a much smaller pot, as soon as I have a recommendation for new potting medium. Right now, it is mostly in fine hard charcoal, with some fir bark and a little perlite; bark does not seem decomposed at all. Should I stick with any/all of these in the medium? Or switch to something else?

There are very few live roots right now. Here are the only ones I see:



close-ups:





I have some Dyna-gro KLN, would a periodic soak (say, for 15 minutes every couple of weeks) be helpful for getting the few existing roots to grow? Other suggestions?

Finally, one of the newer growths has some leaf issues, which I think look fungal:



I was planning to clip off the affected leaves a cm or so below the diseased tissue, allow to heal, treat periodically with Neem as a first line fungicide, switch to something like Cleary's if needed.

Any other cultural suggestions (watering, rest periods, etc) would be appreciated. Thanks!

[UnstuckinTime]

Hey Orchid Whisperer!

Right away it looks like some sort of Nobel dendrobium, though that could be way off. Hard to tell without the flowers. The only trick to these is to lay off watering a bit during the winter months. They are deciduous, so leaf loss is normal. However, I am tempted to suggest that the leaf l loss picture here could also be from being kept too moist. This would likely be a result of the media being too fine, holding too much water, and the leaves being allowed to make prolonged contact with it.

Your course of action sounds spot on to me- repot into a much smaller container (I recommend terra cotta, especially if it has those slits up the side) with a potting media that has much larger bark/charcoal chunks.

Good luck! Let us know how the recovering goes.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Thanks UnstuckinTime

In the past, I have had notoriously bad luck with Dendrobiums (so I may not be the best person to help here! ). But, I will give it a good try. I do appreciate the advice!

[WhiteRabbit]

Might be a thin caned Den...

Even if a nobile type, or other that may want a winter rest in order to bloom - do not "rest" it as it's in poor shape.

[WaterWitchin]

I'm also not much of a dendrobium person, but it looks much like one I killed in the early years. I'd cut back the leaf, but it looks more like stress-related to me. So I'd skip the Neem, etc, for now and just watchfully wait.

Were it mine, I'd soak in weak KLN solution for an hour or so, cut off all dead roots and cut back leaf that looks damaged. Because I do S/H, I'd stake it as best I could into top of LECA, keep it on a heat pad, and watch for growth. I'd weakly fertilize and consider it in ICU for now, as opposed to treating it like a den.

Again, also notoriously not so good at dens myself...but have rescued a couple enough to keep them gasping for a few years.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I have been meaning to post a big "thanks" for all of the suggestions received. I blame the holidays - it just kept slipping my mind.

After posting about this here, and on another forum, I re-potted into a small terracotta pot with some quartz pebbles. I am keeping it mostly dry, only watering once every week to week and a half. In reality, it probably catches a little unintended over-spray as I water some other nearby plants.

So far, so good. Some leaves are yellowing, but I was expecting that. I just need to keep it alive until spring, then hope for some new growth. It will go back to its owner once it is healthy again.

[Cym Ladye]

You SEEM more concerned about what this orchid is called than its culture, and if you do not repot it ASAP into new media, the only thing it will be called is DEAD.

Get it out of the large pot, trim off all the dead and rotted roots and repot it in fresh medium bark in a smaller pot. Maybe in a few months, it will have survived long enough for you to spend time in figuring out what it is!

Cym Ladye