Nobile Pups

[Townsville]

I have clearly overwatered my dendrobium nobile and it has shot pups. The bulbs have grown and the first roots are appearing. Can anyone advise at what stage these should be potted and how to go about it? Thanks

Townsville

[jerrymeola]

Nobile keikis form more from nitrogen fertilizer too late in the season rather than too much water. I still water mine heavily although I stopped fertilizer in September.

The keikis can be removed when the roots get about 4 inches. They grow fast so it will not be long.

Sometimes I get keikis without any roots and they can get to 5-6 inches before the roots start. Keikis are fascinating to watch.

[Townsville]

Thanks for this Jerry. Might I ask, though, what season you are talking about? September here is early spring. It is now summer. May I assume you are saying stop nitrogen in autumn?

Townsville

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Jerry is in Florida, USA. I'm sure he means autumn, add six months. Fertilize only while growing is a good rule of thumb.

[God.Jr]

i have a dendrobium to thanx to Cythia and one two others who helped identify it....... today i repot it i have two keiki's comin off at the moment......one is at the base close to the medium and i think has started to get roots. and i have another one which is growing near the top of one of the canes ...... i am hopin to save the one near the top of the cane and start a newbie..... i'm hopin if all goes well i won't loose any and end up with three plants. is that possible? i hope so

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

No. The one at the bottom is not a keiki. I hope you did not remove it from the other health or atleast semi-healthy canes. Growing from the bottom is the normal pattern, with a new growth produced each year, forming a chain of growths. The one up high is the keiki, and as you can probably guess, the roots from this keiki would never make it down to the pot, and that is why we remove it to form a new plant. Removing a growth from the bottom will set the main part of the plant back as it will have to start a whole new growth again, and your plant may not have the energy to do that.

[Townsville]

Thanks for that Cynthia. By the way, is my avatar (me only bloom at the moment) a Phal. Anthua Moscow? It is very similar to Dave's example - but has more yellow on the lower petal.

Thanks again
Townsville

[God.Jr]

thanx for the heads up i will leave it connected but i'm still keen to see if i can save the other keiki

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

God.jr, thinking about the chain character of sympodials, in nature the plants produce a new growth each year at the front, and let die the oldest growth at the back end, however far back that is. That is probably why your plant has the dead growths in the middle of the plant, as these are the oldest growths, and therefore they are not necessarily dead because someone did something wrong. It is common for specimin plants, those really big plants with many, many growths, to be limited by this dying off of very old growths, leaving the center of the plant unsightly.