Dendrobium with no flowers!
 

Hi everyone,
We bought a dendrobium from an orchid seller that we met at an orchid show last year. It's quite a big plant with lots of branches and in a beautiful hanging basket. We've put it on a good spot and since we've had it, it's almost doubled in size! I've even had 3 keiki's off it, but NO flowers!!!!
Is there anything I can do to stimulate the flower growth? I have been feeding it once a week and it should be flowering now as this is their season, but there are no flower spikes at all! I read on one of the forums here that some Den's don't produce flowers, just keiki's. is this true?

The usual reason for lack of flowers has to do w/not enough light but before we go down that path...let's start w/a few more specifics....

Do you know what kind of Dendrobium is it? There are a lot of different species and there are also a lot of different cultural requirements for this group.

Also, you say you have it in a good spot but what specifically do you mean? Is it in window? If so, what direction is that window? N, S, E, or W or some combo? Maybe you grow in a g/h or outside year round?

Just a few more specifics on how you're growing it might be helpful in determining what needs to be changed up or adjusted.

Thanks for the reply Katrina!
It's a dendrobian phalaenopsis. It's outside at the moment in a spot behind our house that gets good dappled morning sun (about 3 hours of sunshine). We live in a tropical coastal town that rarely see's temperatures dropping below 15 deg's in winter so we leave our orchids outside and daytime temps go to about 25-30 deg.
As I said in the post, we believe it to be a good spot because in the year that we've had it, it's almost doubled in size! Lots of new leaf stems have grown with beautiful leaves on it. I'll post a picture of it in a later thread.
It grew 2 keiki's that fell off (think the wind broke them off) and its got one on that's got little roots and we are leaving on until it gets bigger.

If it's currently growing, you may need to wait until the new growth is mature, or nearly so, before it may spike.

I only have a couple small den-phals, so I don't know about all of them, but mine start spikes mid to late summer to bloom in autumn.

When last year did you get this one?

I have a feeling it's the type that needs a winter rest, and that's why it's not blooming.

Dendrobium phalaenopsis, (I'm talking about the species here, not the hybrid types), does have a winter "dry out" in the wild. It still rains in the winter, but far, far less compared to late spring and summer.

So, for anybody growing Den phalaenopsis and has been watering them regularly even during the winter, you can actually save some money on water by just letting this species go much drier in the winter.

During the winter, you can drop the watering down to once every 2 - 3 weeks, and it'd be fine.

It is also mostly found as a lithophyte in nature, btw.

I don't really dry my hybrid phalaenopsis-type dendrobium on purpose (unlike some of the other dens in my collection); it's in a CHC mix, so I err on the side of slight dryness anyway (with the occasional heavy flood) - it's flowered twice in a row under my care. Our inland town is probably considerably colder than yours, but it's grown indoors (min 10ºC at night), so that may not be a factor. I greatly reduce fertilisation in the winter, which may be a factor, but I don't change the type of fertiliser (MSU formulation for pure water, 13-3-15-8Ca-2Mg, in RO water).

I haven't had keikis on mine either, but I get TONS of keikis on my Nobile-type dendrobiums (all decended from one plant) (lots of growth, no flowers) if I don't give them a winter rest.

Re: seasonal timing, mine blooms in autumn (and is now going to start dying off now, having been in bloom for a couple of months).

It is very unusual to find a plant that won't flower at all; they do this when there is something you're doing wrong in keeping it (too much of something, not enough of another).

Some people have noticed in nobile type dendrobiums that it's not so much a break in water they need, but a break in nitrogen (fertiliser) over the winter to trigger their flowering. Try not fertilising it from now until spring and see how you get along; you can reduce watering too, making sure to water it if the pseudobulbs show evidence of excessive shrinking. I'm not sure if this will work with yours, but it's worth a shot. Many dens also respond well to an increase in sunlight in winter; without knowing the (probably) hybrid ancestry of your plant, it's hard to know what it will see as a "trigger" - and in some crosses, only testing our various things will reveal what it is!

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---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:21 PM ----------

It may be worth finding a local(ish) orchid Fundi who has some experience with growing these in your climate; there are a couple of nurseries over that way (Stephward in Uvongo, Inhle in ?Ballito? and Colin Silver at Stone Age in Durban); there are several orchid societies there, and I'm sure someone in one of those grows these in a garden similar to yours! Orchid Societies Affilliatedto the SAOC

It's not necessary to do the "dry winter" for Den Phal hybrids. But since it was brought up, I know that the species Den phalaenopsis does have a "dry spell". Some people don't observe it for the species as well, but I'm just saying that it's possible, and it could be a way to save some water, time, and money.

In cultivation, yes, as Discus did mentioned, the fertilization of the orchid stops altogether.

Since everybody here is kinda guessing at how to solve the problem with your Dendrobium without actually seeing what the plant looks like, is it possible to post a photo of it?

Why people observe the reduction in watering for the Dendrobiums that go through distinct dry seasons, is not necessarily for the sole purpose of triggering blooms. It is a way to indirectly stop fertilization, (most orchid fertilizers are water soluble fertilizers), and also because watering during winter, depending on the circumstances of how it was grown/potted, has the potential to add the problem of rotting your plants out if done just as regularly as during growing season. For me, I'll throw in that it saves me time to reduce the water for those that experience the dry spell.

While I do give my hardcane dens a winter drier rest, I'm going to go off into a different direction and guess it may want more light.
I grow mine getting dappled light a good 6+ hours a day, a fair bit of it pretty direct. I've had plants refuse to bloom when moved to more shade, then start again when moved to higher light.
It didn't affect their keiki throwing, though.

Thanks everyone for the advise. For the past month I have already reduced the watering it received and it didn't look happy. The stems have gone a bit limp so I've resumed it's normal routine. The previous owner used to keep it outside as well under a tree so I've tried to mimick that environment. I do think it needs maybe a bit more light. So I'm going to move it to a spot that maybe gets a few more hours sunlight. I'll take a picture of it today so everyone can see.
But in other great news.... Our Paph has got a flower on it! Can't wait for it to open!!

Yeah, you really need to post pictures of your plant. There are many different types of dendrobiums and you cannot just take what people are saying here because they have no idea what dendrobium you are talking about.

:scratchhead:

Limp? The canes shouldn't be limp from reducing the water. If anything they should look a bit shriveled, but not limp! It could be rotting...idk...

If you're growing outdoors, do you know the day and night temperatures?

Do you have a rough idea of the temperature ranges your area experiences during the different seasons?

As a general guideline, sometimes you can kind of gauge how much sun your orchid needs by looking at how dark green/light green the leaves are.

Generally speaking, if the plant is receiving less light than it needs to thrive, the leaves will usually be a darker green.

Generally speaking, if the plant is receiving an adequate amount of light, the leaves will usually be a lighter green.

Most Dendrobiums fall in the range of growing under moderate indirect bright light to indirect bright light.

This should make things a bit easier to tell what the problem(s) may be.

Nice! :)

We're in the middle of winter here so it's a chilly 15 deg Celsius at night. (Tough times I know!). Day temps are mid 20 deg's Celsius. We did have a cold spell here this last week where the night time temp dropped to about 8 deg Celsius.
As far as the leaves go, they are a dark green colour. But let me post a picture and we can take it from there! :)

Leaf color does not mean much. Some plants naturally have dark or light green leaves.

Again, pictures will help.

Talking about colors, temperatures and stuff does not help much without identifying what dendrobium is being talked about.

That's true to a degree.

I did mention that the leaf color was a general guideline, not a definitive rule. It is true that some orchids just naturally have darker leaves, and it is irrespective to the amount of light the orchid is receiving.

Talking about temperatures provides a part of the information that would otherwise be missing in order to troubleshoot the issue once the ID of the Dendrobium is determined or roughly determined.

It is preferable to also know what the name on the tag actually says in order to properly ID the Dendrobium in question, (provided the plant actually came with a name tag), since, as far as we know, there are no photos of the flowers. A pic of the plant in-and-of itself can only go so far with the ID'ing process.

Otherwise, as we all stated, any kind of pics of the orchid does help to some degree or another in the overall sense of troubleshooting the problem.

For reference purposes:

8 C = 46.4 F (recent cold spell)

15 C = 59 F (winter night)

25 C = 77 F (winter day)

As promised here are pics of the dendrobium in question. As mentioned its a den phalaenopsis. (So we were told by the guy we bought it from).

Another pic... (Sorry couldn't figure out why it won't let me put 2 pics in!)

Try just waiting a little longer.

It looks like it's getting the correct amount of light.

It looks fine actually.

doesn't look like den phal at all to me.

Then what does it look like?

It does look like its happy, but just to be sure I've moved it to a place where it gets a bit more light so we'll monitor it and see what happens! Thanks for all the help! :waving

To me it doesn't look like a Dendrobium Phalaenopsis either. I think a Dendrophal has shorter and thicker canes (at least those I have). I think it looks more like a Dendrobium kingianum type.

Many den phal hybrids have long slender canes, but tend to develop thicker lower waist depending on the hybrids.

The leaves and overall shape of the plant is just not of den phal.

I would also say kingianum type or there are a few other dendrobiums that may look similar to this.

You will just have to wait until it blooms.

By the way, your plant looks fine to me. It is normal for certain dendrobiums to have just a few top leaves left.

I second what NY said. Looks to me like a kingianum, and I have a few of those. Originally from Australia, they are subtropicals. I live in southern California, similar climate with S. Africa. My Kingianums stay out doors all year. They can withstand quite a bit of cold, even light frost, though we don't get those much either. Without the cool and dryer rest, a kingianum will not flower. If you have been growing it warm high light but only keikis but no bloom, I highly suspect it is not a phalaenopsis type hybrid, and quite honestly it doesn't look like a phalaenopsis hybrid to me either.
Good luck
Andrew

Tarryn's plant looks far too large and way too leggy to be a Den kingianum.

A Berry Oda?

Ok...

I'm gonna stick my neck out there and take a wild guess at what I think this orchid really is. I could be wrong, but whatever, like I said, I'm guessing because there are no photos of flowers to accompany the plant photo -

I think it's quite possibly a hybrid. That much I'm about 70% to 80% certain of.

I think it's a Dendrobium phalaenopsis type of hybrid, the ones that are regularly sold in DIY hardware/lumber stores or supermarkets, if you want me to be more specific.

Whether the hybrid has a name or not, I really have no clue. If it did have a specific name, I don't know what it would be.

Oh gosh! I've been looking up all the orchid types everyone has been mentioning and they all look the same to me! Hopefully it will give us some flowers soon and then we will know the answer!

Thanks for everyone's help and advise!