Dendrobium nobile - New growths are struggling
 

Good afternoon!

Though I have visited this forum many times, this is the first post that I submit.

I bought this dendrobium 2 months ago. It was in the clearance area of the shop as it had already lost all of the flowers. I reppoted it when I brought it home and it looked perfectly fine. Now, the new growths in my orchid are clearly dying (rotting, It seems). I probably let some water in them while watering :(

The newest leaves are starting to turn brown fall and problem is that I do not know what to do from here. I read that removing them would make the canes to regrow new ones. Has anyone ever tried it? I am having a hard time in finding more information about this.

I am afraid that the plant will not have enough energy to produce new growths as the main canes are already looking "exhausted".

Thank you for reading this!


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First, Welcome!

Den. nobile, and its hybrids, slow down during the winter... sometimes they lose leaves, sometimes keep them (depending on what else is in the hybrid). In late winter/early spring, it would probably benefit from repotting if you haven't already done it (This isn't a good time, wait until spring) As the weather cools, reduce the watering - while some may say to withhold water completely, I have learned the hard way that's not good... in nature they may get no rain in winter, but they get dew and humidity. So water lightly but no fertilizer. These are quite capable of blooming on leafless canes, no worries there. You will probably see a new growth or two in the early spring, when it will be time to increase water and start fertilizing.

Anyway, I think the plant will be fine - during the winter it doesn't want much attention, so just pretty much ignore it and let nature do her thing.

HI Roberta!

Thank you very much for your help.

I did repot it when I purchased it (I usually do it with new orchids, specially if the media looks old).

Do you think that the dormancy period took the new growths by surprise? This is my first Den. so I am quite intrigued with its behavior compared to the other orchids I already have.

Not sure that it's quite a "surprise' but I do expect that the new growths will slow down soon. What did the roots look like when you repotted? If they weren't so good, no problem, the plant can run on the reserves of the mature growths until the new roots do their growing in the spring. If it's rooting now, great, just that much ahead.

I can't see the pictures well. You uploaded them at a very large size and my desktop browser doesn't rescale extra-large photos. So I'm going by what I was able to see with some panning from side to side.

Dendrobiums need a very large amount of water when making new growths. They should not dry out during this season. When a Dendrobium doesn't get enough water while it's making a new growth, the growth turns dark brown or black and dies. People mistake this for rot, but it is not. It is lack of water.

They really struggle if you repot them when they are not just beginning new roots. Repotting damages the old roots, and if the plant begins making new growths before it makes plenty of new roots, it can be hard for the plant to take up water.

This plant looks like it's been seriously underwatered for some time. This is normally its season to be maturing new growths, but a lot of these are manipulated at the growers to flower earlier or later in the year than they would if they paid attention to natural seasons. I suspect your plant isn't finished growing for the year, and you should be watering it a lot more.

Hola Estación Seca!

That was great advice, thank you. I usually repot the orchids when I buy them so I can check for pests and problems at the roots, specially if the come from the clearance aisle. I guess I should have not done it with this one.

Just in case you want to see the photos, here is a link to the imgur album Dendrobium Nobile - Album on Imgur

---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 AM ----------

Thanks again!

A lot of people repot all new acquisitions. I don't repot until I see new root growth. There are a few kinds of orchids that really struggle if repotted at the wrong time. Den. nobiles are in this group.