dendrobium propagation

[keyspetvet]

I have a pretty little "home depot" dendrobium that's been in bloom for around a month now. One of the flowers looks as if its been fertilized. How would I go about growing this? Should I remove from stalk or let it drop on its own? Should I lay on or bury in orchid medium? I'd love to be able to grow it. Thanks for any help.

[Sandy4453]

Wouldn't that be nice...to grow another plant from the flower itselt but sorry to say, it can't be done. These flowers bud from inflorescense which grow from the canes which grow on a rhizome, a horizontal stem. The rhizome is the part of the plant from which roots usually grow. It all starts there and if grown properly, your dendrobium will produce flowers, not the other way around.

There's a lot of information here to help you keep your plant healthy.

Hope this helps.

[camille1585]

Hi keyspetvet, welcome to OB!
Unfortunately orchid seeds are not as easy to sow as the seeds of 'normal' plants. If you just bury them in orchid medium, they will never grow since they don't have all the nutrients they need to germinate. The seeds need to be sown in jars on an artificial medium, in completely sterile conditions (sterile seeds, medium, jars, tools.....) It takes year to have plants ready to bloom. Flasking seeds is kind of difficult and you need the proper material to do it. But, if you really are motivated to do it, there are experienced people on OB who could help you. If you have no interest in doing this, then you can just cut off the seed pod to save the plant's energy.
Hope this helps