Propogating from old dendrobium stems

[thakshila smith]

Originally Posted by melatie

Hi
a few weeks ago I got some old stems from someone and one of them had what i thought was a keiki. Guess what...
I didn't know this was possible

My God .Its a miracle. try to show us the results .thank you for sharing .
Sue :- let them sit in cool shady dry place . I put mine in a empty fish tank .I think they had lots of humidity.
they need lots of humidity .Thats all . I didn't apply any thing to cutting ends. I forgot .
When I spray water I assume they drank it.
Bye.

[chulaorchids]

Depends on the type of dendrobium, I think at least six you might have. But the old bulbs are the source and strength of any orchid plant. Less bulbs, slower growth, less flowers. Cutting them back to one bulb would be like making them all seedling again, with a good chance of losing some along the way.

Some dendrobs like the nobile type start new plants at the nodes or joints on the stem if the bulb is cut and pinned to a bed of sphagnum moss and kept moist.

[Orchidaholic]

I have had great success getting keiki's from many types of dendro's. I have had more luck cutting the cane and tacking it to cork/treefern than I have with the sphag~n~bag. I tend to give the cane the same lighting as the original plant to produce growth and no water till the roots are a few inches long, just high humidity. This seems to work for me with phal types, antelope & nobile's. A note with the Nobile's, if the cane you cut has old flower spikes it will never keiki. The place's on the nodes where keiki's would develop has already been used and will NOT reproduce! I have a cutting of D. Oriental Smile that was given to me to keiki but it was a flowered section. It was cut 1 1/4 years ago and is still green and plump (without watering, only humidity) but no growth whereas D. Red Emperor, D Burana Stripe, D. Mini Diamond, D. kingianum & D. NOID(blue) cuttings from the same time have all developed keiki's & are now developing multiple canes.

[andypandy]

hi i did a cutting from a dendrobium 2 years ago, i cut the old cane from the pot and coated the end of the dendrobium in the pot with sulpher to stop it rotting, then i took the cane and cut it into 3 pieces, coating yet again with sulpher, then put it in medium orchid compost, gave it a water, then put a top of a lemonade bottle over the top to keep the humidity in, the put it in the greenhouse and then after a while hopefully you should get a shoot from the side, just like planting a backbulb from a cymbidium
king regards andy

[Posey]

This technique has never worked for me I dropped my Gatton Sunray some time ago though and am trying it again. Maybe the increased humidity in the greenhouse will help. I heard somewhere that if you cut a small triangle out at the node with a sterile razorblade it tends to facilitate the process. I tried it that way this time. After I made the cuts, I dumped rooting hormone on each cut. Its been more than a month and the huge cane still looks fine. Has its leaves still too. No little growths though. I'm wondering if the deciduous canes, that are of blooming 'age', would be a better choice for success. Anybody know?

[melatie]

hi Posey

be patient.
I have a few lying here since july that are only now showing signs of growth. I'd already given up on them, because others were already 'growing'. I don't know what that's all about .

I've never cut my own plants with the intention to do this type of propagation. Most of the canes were given to me and a few of them are from plants that my dogs thought were fun to play with. But hey, up till now I'm having a good success rate. I even have canes that have bloomed in the past that are now showing signs of growth. Even the one in the pics i posted in july.

Patience is the key here!!!

Good luck!