Den. Iki committing suicide

[Sara]

I am so frustrated with this plant!
I've had it for over a year and a half, and no blooms. Now it it has been losing leaves randomly (right now it has quite a few yellow leaves). I'm not over watering and I have no idea as to why it's doing it.
I thik this plant is ready for the compost heap.

[MSPProductions]

Sara, you might not be doing anything wrong. From what I can gather Iki's parents (Den. cruentum x Den. bellatulum) cruentum is a deciduous plant.

[Sara]

Here are some pics:

[kmarch]

A year and a half is not a long time in orchid terms and far too early to give up on an orchid that has not bloomed. I will assume you bought the plant in bloom and as I recall for this cross the typical cycle for this orchid is to bloom once a year. It is not uncommon for a plant to skip a bloom cycle as it adjusts to your unique conditions, especially if you're not growing in optimal greenhouse conditions. So I recommend a large serving of patience as it will probably be a minimum of 6 more months before it blooms again.

I agree with other posts that the leaf drop is probably nothing to be concerned about. Is the plant growing new canes?

There are a number of other reasons why your Den might not be blooming. It may require more light. You don't mention how much light it is getting. How much are you giving it? It may require temperature drops. I believe both parents grow and bloom on a seasonal cycle so the plant may be expecting a cooler autumn and winter. Sometimes Dens that expect seasonal temp differences but who dont' receive them will grow but never bloom.

I'll do a bit of research on the parents and let you know what this plant might expect.

[Sara]

I didn' buy it in bloom. It is currently in a southern window.
I chatted with some other orchid lovers on a different forum, and the cause may be a lack of nutrition. Also a repotting may be in order.

[Tobi]

Sara.
Your Dend. is a nigrahirsute type. It does like a short dry period during the non-growing
season and although they usually like slightly cooler temps during that time, I read from
one of the growers that this hybrid will do well in intermediate temps. As for the leaves,
it is quite normal for them to turn yellow and fall off. Several of mine are doing that
right now, especially from the older canes. Your light conditions seem fine as long as it
is not getting extended periods of direct sun, in which case the leaves would indicate
a sunburn. I agree with Kevin in that many plants take a while to acclimate to their
new environment, so It's not that unusual for it to skip a blooming season. As for
lack of nutrition, I'm not sure. Is is potted in bark and what else? Did you fertilize
the plant when it was growing? Usually this time of the year, you would stop fertilizing
with this type Dend.

[Sara]

I unpotted my den a few minutes ago, and discovered that pretty much all the roots were papery and hollow! There must of been a period of time when it was severely under watered. I think I know when it happened too. I had on my deck for a few weeks this summer and I must not have watered it enough. Fortunetly, it is growing some new roots (very tiny at the moment).
So I trimmed all the bad roots, grabed some sphag moss and bagged it.
Should I use some rooting hormone to encourage new root growth? How should I care for it now, and how long should it be in the ziplock? Thanks!

[clarita]

Hi Sara- what are your conditions?

Deciduous should be resting at this time of year. Its a difficult time to disturb them. I prefer to leave them be instead of spag and bag, especially during the dark winters. I find that light cures most orchid ailments. Wondering how you currently grow your den?

I'm an indoor grower now. I summer my orchids outdoors. My dens enjoy full summer sun on a Chicago roof top. (little desnudans & low light amethysteglossum too. Dens can handle the pitiful little sun of Northern zones, like ours during summer provided that they are acclimated slowly to the sitaution. They go out after danger of frost is over and come in at the end of october. The light and fresh air makes a big difference that carries them well into the darker months. I take advantage of the fall temps. The summer regime sets them up for the long winter haul and for blooming.

Yellow leaves are usually a sign over under-watering. Brown leaves usually indicate over-watering. Here is a pic of my Den desnudans. it just finished flowering

Cheers!

[Jaki]

Orchids are all about patience!! I have several dendrobium orchids and for a very long time they did not bloom. I went to hear a horticulturalist in Florida and they said they need lots of light. I have a small orchid room with three sky lights and I move mine dendrobiums to the top shelf and low and behold, blooms on all of them. However, that is also where the summer heat seems to build up so humidity really helps. Another thing I learned was that to bloom orchids love to have crowded roots. Since most of my plants are in 4-5 inch pots, the stalks are very heavy. They showed how they put top-heavy plastic pots into one size larger clay pots to keep them from toppling over. I now add pea gravel to my bark mix to help counter-balance their top heavy characteristic as many have toppled over and unpotted themselves.

I noticed that the canes in the photo look to be quite striated with lengthwize ribs. Mine develop that when they are missing adequate moisture, and/or have weak hollow roots you described. I consider the plant to be in stress and the yellow leaves are just the outward sign of their stress. I dunk all of my orchids in a weekly warm water bath with Super Thrive and Physan and alternate weeks with dilute orchid food to really saturate the bark and then let the water drain at will. All of my orchids are on orchid trays with water in the bottom. That humidity really helps as I live in the Tehachapi Mt. and it is very desert-like at all times of the year. For what it's worth, I kill most plants with over-watering and very rarely with under-watering.

I've only used the spagnum moss when I cut canes to create new plants and I only have a portion of the cane in moss. I swath the spag base with saran wrap and leave part of the cane in air. I can dunk the whole thing in water and unwrap to check for rooting activity and gently squeeze out the excess moisture and rewrap. I've started several new plants this way.

If you have repotted with new medium sized bark, focus on keeping that moist and try adding a few drops of Super Thrive to your watering water and gradually add some growth formula orchid food to help develop your root system. Once you have healthy roots, I think you'll notice new green leaf growth and when all of those factors are stress free and showing health, flowers will follow.

[fred]

Hi Jaki welcome to the forum please feel free to go to the Introduction section and Introduce yourself to the forum also it would be a good Idea if you could Update your Profile with your Location as we have members from all over the world with different growing conditions.

also that will hep us to understand your growing conditions and also with advice if needed.

[clarita]

Jaki has some good advice to offer. I'd like to add a footnote about the use of products like superthrive (ST). It is a good product to use in Sara's circumstance but it can inhibit blooming. I generally use it with am using High N fertiliser. I stop using it when I switch to high P or prior to bloom season.