Dendrobium 911
 

I have a Dendrobium Burana Prince (Phal type) that is struggling.
It lives in an east window, I have a humidifier and the temps stay about 65-70 F. also a small fan blowing.
It last bloomed Winter 2012 but has been sulking ever since.
There is three new growths but they have seemed to have stalled, the canes seem dehydrated, the roots are short.
I recently repotted and cut all the dead out. The new roots that formed didn't get very long and are now whitish brown.
I really want to save this one as I got it in Hawaii on my honeymoon.
Please help me!

Other than great fortune propagating a broken cane from an unknown (but large) dendrobium. I am very inexperienced with dendrobiums. I did buy a gigantic book called 'The Dendrobiums' Which does give a lot of info on the species.

Here is some food for thought.

1) There are 40 sections (types) of dendrobiums.
2) Each section comes from a different region, with different climates.
3) Some sections require cool winters, warm winters, wet winters, dry winters, and a few other combinations.
4) try and determine the heritage (parents) of your hybrid, then try to determine what sections they came from. If they came from different sections with very different requirements, try going down the middle of both requirements.

If you subscribe to American Orchid Society. This month's issue has about 8 dendrobium sections defined, with some of the more popular species in those sections. You might get some more info there.

Good luck

It's not getting enough water.
The roots probably aborted.
The old canes will never look good.
I'd up your watering, and concentrate your efforts on the new growth.

Your plant is producing new canes. Don't worry about the old ones.

What are you doing in terms of watering the plant?

How often are you watering?

Are you watering and fertilizing during the winter?

If you are watering heavily and fertilizing during the winter, I highly recommend you stop doing this.

This hybrid may be one of the "Den-Phal-types", (technically they belong to section Phalaenanthe), and many people do not heed the winter rest thing for these orchids, but the reality of it is - their species counterparts in the wild do experience a winter rest. The other thing is, some of these species are lithophytes, (they grow on rocks in the wilds of Australia, specifically either igneous rocks such as granites, or sedimentary rocks such as sandstone).

When a Dendrobium that usually experiences a winter rest in the wild starts stalling over time when it should be taking off like a weed year-in and year-out, and you seem to have done everything right, then it is usually because of not paying attention to the winter dormancy. Without fail, Dendrobiums that require one, when they do not receive one, will do what you described over time. You might not see the effects of it over a period of 1 year or even 2 years. You might start seeing the effects after the 1st or 2nd years, then it becomes more-and-more noticeable as time goes on.

With that said, yes, this may be a hybrid, but like I mentioned prior, their species counterparts come from the wilds of Australia.

I'd grow these in moderately bright indirect to bright indirect light.

50% - 70% humidity is fine.

Intermediate to warm is fine (50 F - 100 F).

Yes, if you wanted to, you can very well grow these in granite pebbles. It'll most likely do just fine.

thanks for the advice, I feel like I am not watering very much this winter about once a week, fertilize once a month, I bought some seaweed kelp juice (to promote root growth) I will give it that in two weeks, because the next week is straight rain water week...
I appreciate your advice...keep my fingers crossed and treat it like a baby.