Epidendrum in S/H

[Rhynno]

Hi everyone,

I picked up a reed stem epi while on vacation (a plane ride and border crossing later) and took it out of its pot at home to find that there were no active roots and medium and roots were rotting.

I cut off all the damaged and rotting roots, dusted the cuts with cinnamon and repotted it into S/H, watered with a superthrive solution and put it on a seedling heat mat but was dumb enough not to cut off the blooms until yesterday as the plant was not recovering and the roots were slowly rotting (as expected I suppose).

Is there anything else I can do for the epi while it adjusts to s/h? I'd hate to lose my favorite souvenir =/ (particularly since it's hard to find a local epi where I am)

Thanks very much for the help,

Ryan

[wgama]

ive bought plants with no roots and had really good luck revivign them with KLN

[Rhynno]

Thanks for the info Winston! Did you soak your plants in KLN or just add it as a flush/reservoir element?

[wgama]

i soaked em for about 6 hours and i soaked the hydroton in it too.

[stefpix]

will make keikis. you could stick a stem in a glass of water

[Rhynno]

Do you just cut a stem like a cut flower and put it in water? I really hope that I can get this plant growing on way or the other !

[stefpix]

yeah should form keikis easily from the nodes. you could try to make a mini greenhouse / terrarium with a soda bottle and make the stem lay on top of some sphagnum. Unlike Cattleyas Epidendrums like Dendrobiums [and more easily] form keikis from a rootless cane. you could sacrifice the oldest cane cut it in half at least 2 / 3 nodes each and try one in a glass of water and another in sphagnum... prob it will take a year or 2 before the plantlets will bloom.
works with sugar cane too... same concept

[Rhynno]

Thanks Stefano that's a great idea! I love this plant and wouldn't mind more than one seedlings running around loose .

I assume that I should wet the sphag then squish it to get a lot of the water out before laying the cane down? Should I take off the leaves before I do so (both for water and for sphag)?

Thanks again!

Ryan

[Rhynno]

Ooh! I soaked the roots and the hydroton on dilute superthrive a few days ago, put it on a seedling heat mat and it looks like the old roots are starting to branch !! There are tons of little raised root dots coming out all over (very thickly) from the old roots.(I made sure to check that it wasn't scale or fungus) I'm so excited and it's just in the nick of time as one or two of the smaller/older leaves have fallen and most of the other roots have rotted. It also had some mould/fungus in the center of the plant when I unpotted it so I did a drench of dilute bleach (5ml to 1/2L) as per one of Ray's old posts last night because I can't seem to get Physan20 in Canada. I hope that I didn't hurt my baby. But I'm very excited! New roots!!!!! thanks for all the help and tips guys