Dendrobium growth broke off! How to fix?
 

Hello guys, I am so upset. I accidentally broke the stalk of my beloved Dendrobium Thong Cai! It got tangled with the leaves of a phal beside it and got cut off!

I tried taping it back together but it did not work. It is such a pity because it was so green, juicy and healthy and I am sure it would bloom next year.

What should I do with the cut off stalk? Do I reattach it to the mother stalk? Can it grow roots if I put rooting hormone on the cut part and put it in media?

What a waste!

It's possible the mother stalk will start a keiki at the break point. More likely, a whole new growth will start soon. The parent plant will be fine, just that the expected bloom will be delayed.



I've never rooted a top piece like that, but if you want to try, lay it down on some damp sphag and cover to keep the humidity up. Keep it damp and see what happens. Good luck!

Thank you. I hope you're right. I was so disappointed!

It will be fine. Just allow the snapped region to dry, and the orchid will just continue to grow more stems, and more 'keiki' outgrowths etc.

I think Ray (active member here) has experience rooting things in perlite. You might want to do some searching among his posts, or maybe he will chime in. At any rate, if you have Kelpmax, a good soak in that solution would be the way to start either method.

Should I soak the cutoff part in Kelpmax or the mother plant?

The cut-off piece. There is a description of Ray's method here: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...hlight=perlite

Let me try it! Thanks for the tip!

exactly the same thing happened to me recently. I could not get the broken off growth to make it. Mine looked pretty much identical and once the leaves dry and fall off there is hardly any stem left for anything to grow but always worth trying.
The main plant regrew a new cane a month after it got capped.

It is probably too late now but at the time I really wish I had tried bonding the two pieces together again like tree grafting. At the time I thought about it a day late and by then both ends had dried up, although I'm not sure it is possible to graft an orchid cane.

Did you try Ray's Kelpmax Perlite method that they were suggesting? That's what I am doing now. I am soaking the cut stem in Kelpmax, then later I will put it in perlite.