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Help with dendrobium orchid

HU-896799418
2 months ago

Hi, I've had this plant a couple fo years now, as it was gifted to me. It flowers regularly but I it has all these little nodules/roots and I'm unsure as to what to do with them/care for it so I don't kill it off.

Comments (3)

  • HU-896799418
    Original Author
    2 months ago



  • Billsc
    2 months ago

    HU- You are the proud owner of a very well grown cane type Dendrobium orchid. All the canes I see from your picture look plump, and green, and the plant still has a few leaves on it. All these are indicators of very good culture. Your photo does not show what I am going to talk about next very well, so I am going to be doing a bit of speculating. A great number of this type Dendrobium like to be grown "hard and fast" during the summer--meaning, lots of sunlight, water and fertilizer. In the fall they would like a cool dry spell to trigger blooms. The fast growth in the spring and summer encourages them to sprout new canes with lots of roots. When you cool them down and reduce the water, the canes will shrivel, drop most of their leaves and stop growing. The flowers will be produced from the cane joints, where little bumps will form on one side of the cane, and grow into a cluster of blooms. If the plants do not get the cool dry time, most often they will just grow new canes from many of the joints, and pretty quickly turn into a mass of new canes and roots. That's what your plant looks like in the photo. in the winter, you can just remove the newer lateral canes that have a nice set of roots, and put them in regular orchid bark mix, and have a new plant. I worked for a greenhouse once that kept a large number of this type Dendrobium. They grew them outside under shade cloth during spring and summer, with lots of water and fertilizer. In the fall, on the morning after the first frost, It would be "all hands on deck" to move them all into the big greenhouses where they were hung from pipes suspended from the ceiling of the houses. In the big greenhouses they would get no fertilizer, and almost no water, and would be a mass of blooms for a large part of the winter. Keep up the good work. Bill

    HU-896799418 thanked Billsc
  • john davis
    last month

    Hi, taking care of a dendrobium orchid can seem like a bit of a puzzle, but no stress, you got this! Those little nodules and roots popping out are actually a good sign; it means your orchid is vibing and trying to spread its love. What you wanna do is make sure it’s chilling in a spot with good, indirect light and not too much water—think like a light misting rather than a full-on shower. When it comes to those extra roots, just let them hang out and do their thing. They’re kinda like the plant's way of giving you a high-five for taking good care of it. Just keep doing what you're doing, maybe give it a little orchid food once in a while, and your dendrobium will keep blooming and showing you love.