Dendrobium kingianum winter care

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by PuiPuiMolcar

Southern CA here, my area dropped to 40 consistently these past days it doesnt seem to care at all. I let it in the full sun for about 2-3 hours then get dappled lights from the trees. In fact one of them bloomed last week.
I think most my Aussie Den can handle the cold better than the heat ironically.

These Aussie Dens can handle a lot more cold than they're getting so far (I'm also southern California) They can take freezing or a few degrees below. Heat isn't a problem either, but in summer they do need a bit of protection from the sun at mid-day. (Heat is one thing, direct burning sun is quite another) They are fine with triple digits F with a little shading. I'm coastal so a bit temperate, but the Aussie Dens do fine inland too (unlike a lot of things that I can get away with but the inland folks not so much )

[PuiPuiMolcar]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Heat isn't a problem either, but in summer they do need a bit of protection from the sun at mid-day.

definitely, these Aussie Dens were how I realized one layer of Shade cloth isn't enough.

[JImG]

Originally Posted by stonedragonfarms

Greetings from further up the left coast Lil Duck [Portland here]. I grow a number of kingianum and find that there is no hard & fast rule of thumb as to how big plants need to be in order to bloom--any cane that is mature is capable of doing so; this holds whether the plant is in a 2" pot or a 12" pot. There's also tremendous variability in the size of mature kingianum canes, on some cultivars, a 4" tall cane is a giant, on others, 12"+ is the norm. Most produce their heaviest flush of blooms in late winter on throughout spring; the odd few will bloom off and on year round. I've not found mine to be too picky about winter light levels [*don't take this to mean put it in a north facing window...], restricted watering [and suspension of feeding] helps to initiate blooming, in situ, winter lows run in the low-mid 40s. For best blooms, feed plants heavily from about the end of April through to mid October, then stop feeding and decrease water--my collection is in an unheated greenhouse and gets no water from mid December-mid February. Hope this helps.

My goodness, an unheated greenhouse and it is forecast to be 32 tonight? Now, that sounds like heaven to me in CT, but to most orchids isn't that a bit low? And in Oregon, along the coast, I'd think that would mean frost, no? Well in a greenhouse no, I guess.

[Roberta]

32 deg F for a few hours won't bother a dry, acclimated Den. kingianum. A dry orchid can tolerate more cold that a wet one. And the "acclimation" part is critical. There are actually many orchids that can tolerate low night temperatures for a few hours in winter. My yard (not even a GH) does not get quite that cold, but it can occasionally get close. And the plants aren't even that dry... I do water only in the morning in winter so plants have a chance to dry somewhat. If I acquire a new plant in late fall through winter, that might be marginal for cold tolerance, I'll protect it throght the first winter, then put it outside in spring, where it can acclimate through the full range of seasons. By the folloing fall, it's tough enough.