Hey, Penny, what is the potting mix?

Josh

Gads. This plant was lucky. It is in small/medium size bark. I haven't taken the plant out of the pot to inspect the roots.

There seems to be a new trend now around here. Every since last summer, all the orchid I've gotten have been potted in tightly packed spaghnum moss in plastic pots. Some lucky few have had a few slits on the pot sides. The roots are growing in circles around the bottom of the pots. I've been removing moss with tweezers and repotting them. The roots on this plant are thin. So that is new to me.
Penny

Do you have a picture? If its finished flowering, you can pull it out to look at the roots. Dens like to be in small pots so if the bark still looks good you can leave it alone.

Some dens take a rest period after flowering and do nothing until early spring.

There are many types of dendrobiums and some have different cultural needs. If you can post a photo or tag information, it would be helpful.

These plants are tough and if not over-watered will do fine.

Jane

Here are a couple of photos. It doesn't show very clearly that the leaves are starting to yellow. I don't see any green in the roots any more. I think it's dying.

roots
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leaves
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I thought if you could grow Phals you would not have any trouble growing a hard-cane Dendrobium.

Here is a pic. of some blooms of an "intermediate type" where there is a lot of "antelope" type ancestors. If the flowers on yours were round and filled in there would be more Dendrobium phalaenopsis in the breeding.
Think Hawaii, North east Australia, Southern Florida for the conditions required. Generally need a slight cooling down in Autumn to initiate blooming and keep them slightly drier in winter. Cold and wet is a recipe for disaster.
If there are some live growth eyes at the base of of the canes, new growth will commence as "spring" comes on.
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Hello. What I would like to know is what happened to Penyhals roots?

Did they rot in such a fast amount of time? Are they adjusting outside of a perfect environment?
Is that a sign of over watering?
Is that an indication of dry household conditions with the roots dying off?
Is that an indication of transition to another location and the roots will come back looking just as nice as they did when she bought it?
Are those sick and dying roots from being to dry or a lack of moisture in the air?

What really do those roots looking like that indicate. For me in the past, EVERY time I ever bought an orchid, the roots always looked great and then like that after a few days of having it home.

What kind of answer given will help Penyhal relax or worry, and encourage or discourage someone like me from buying any again.

Thank you!

Mike

In 2011 at the local orchid society there were 23 Hard-Cane type Dendrobium Hybrids shown by members of the local orchid society. This is out of a total of 1955 orchids.

This says they are DIFFICULT here
IN Zone 5 heaven knows
in 11 sunset23 heaven knows
Not so in some of the places i mentioned in my post above where they are EASY.

People come by them as florist flowers because they are easily grown in the right conditions in a glass-house.

My orchid in the photo shown above is an intermediate type which are thought to be easier to grow than those with more Dendrobium phalaenopsis in the ancestry.

I have a hard-cane wich was a victim of overwatering it's first winter, they really should be given a bit of water probably once a month from flowering until new growth (which for me is in january) and then increasing the water from there until its getting watered once a week. I have higher humidity than you likely do, but the roots aren't dying because of that. It's likely a result of too much water or that plant being handled roughly. mine is mounted with live spanish moss on a piece of cedar so i can't comment on pot size, but yours definitely looks smaller and more floriferous than mine was when i got it, reduce your watering, leave it in the sphagnunm, it'll be fine, mine survived in dead sphag for a year on it's mount, just water significantly less.

that's what works for me, more water and the leaves will yellow and fall off.

It's in a 3 inch pot. It's been pretty dry here with less than 50% humidity. Last week and this week some rain has been passing through, but in the house we have the heat on so it is still dry in here. The bark in the pot remains pretty dry. I water it along with my other orchids...when dry, water.

Penny, where some of the ancestors of these hard-cane Dendrobiums grow there are roughly two seasons in the year, Warm & Wet then Warm and Dry.

The problem with them here is that houses are not centrally heated in winter so inside is too cool. Outside in a glass-house is a problem because i am a miser.

If your Phals are doing fine maybe all you have to do with a hard-cane is to use a smaller pot with sparse potting mix and give them slightly more light (and be mean with the water in winter).

The orchid pictured in my post above is growing in a basket pot with sparse potting mix and it is flowering from an old cane in summer.

As i said in my post above difficult here, but rewarding because the blooms last 6 to 8 weeks.

Hard cane Dendrobiums are easy if you live in Hawaii. Difficult every where else.

Nick

I love the hard canes and find them the easiest orchids to grow - if you have enough light. I've grown them in NY for years and always put them outside as soon as the weather warmed. I would gradually move them into full sun.

Some bloomed in winter, the others spring/summer. I grew them dry. Small pots with medium bark with a little sphag. In winter, I displayed them in bloom and didn't worry about light. They would bloom for months, I would put them away until Spring when they would go back outside. Indoors, I kept them quite dry. My house had low humidity and it was quite cool at night. They did fine.

Watering and light are the biggest factors to growing them well. Lack of humidity was never a problem.

Jane

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But Jane, you did not tell us the temp indoors when in NY, they do not like to be cold in winter.
Here, Sydney, Australia the most commonly grown orchid is the Cymbidium. They are garden plants.

Go North about 600 miles and the Cymbidiums are replaced by Hard-cane Dendrobiums in orchid collections.

I've tried a few outside in warm spots in the garden (no frost,no snow in the micro-climate) and they always decline. AND, outside as i've said before there are things like Banana and Mango growing.

Jane!

Those are beautiful..What are the names of those? I just love them and think I am going to try one:-)

MIke

Arthur, cold in my house was 58-60 degrees in Winter. These were Fall bloomers. The Spring bloomers were trickier because they needed more light and warmer winter temps. I stuck those under lights to finish their growths.

I never had a problem growing them and still don't understand why so many find them difficult. My very first orchid was a hard cane and I had no idea what it was. It still bloomed each winter.

I think giving them tons of sunlight in summer did the trick.

I never had good luck with the nobiles. They would do well for a few years but go down-hill over time.

Mike, I'd have to look the names up. Tags were lost a long time ago. The first one is a hybrid noid from a supermarket.

Jane

watering it when you water the others is too much. In my house my 'chids get watered once a week, as i said, once a month once it gets brought inside for the year is enough until january nad after that I can get watered once every 1-2 weeks. like arthur said, be mean with the watering!

sorry, i realize that i was unclear earlier. what I mean is that all of my other orchids get watered once a week except for the dend which only gets wet once a month after about november until january.

Thanks for all the info!

Jane, your orchids are beautiful! And the leaves are so glossy!

The pot is about a foot away from a glass sliding door facing east. After the direct sunlight moves off the plants, I open the drapes. Several of the phals are making flower stalks and I am happy about that!

Right now I'm just spray the dendobium with water when I spray the phals. We are in a pretty warm and dry, windy spell right now. I haven't repotted the dend and it's bark is quite dry. When it gets like that I give it a couple of sprays and that's enough to drip through. But the roots on top that were green look pretty dead to me. This plant did very well for several months, but I must have done something wrong. I suspect I let it get too dry during a windy dry spell we had. So I'll just wait and see what this plant does. Sometimes it takes a little experience to figure out what is best in your own home I guess.

A couple of months have gone by and it appears that this plant is growing a new stalk. I've only given it a squirt of water now and then.

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The top continues to turn brown and leaves are dying off. They look a lot greener in the photo than they actually are.

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Should I remove any of the old stalkes or roots? Or repot the plant? It's in a 3 inch pot.

I appreciate your advice!

Penny

Don't remove the canes as long as they are green, they are providing energy to the new growth. I would pull it out of the pot and re pot in the same pot with fresh mix. When you put it in the pot put the old growth into the corner of the pot against the wall putting the new shoot more in the center.

From the photo I would water a little more than you did last year. The canes should be fat like the ones in Jane's picture. It's normal for the old canes of these types to drop leaves after a year or two. Notice in Janes photo only the flowering canes have leaves and those plants look like perfect specimens.

Don't be discouraged if it doesn't flower this year, work on getting the plant to grow making small adjustments as you go. If the new growth ends up smaller than the old ones thats a sign that something needs to change, maybe a little more light or some fertilizer. If the new growth is the same size or bigger you are very close to getting flowers. Don't use any copper based sprays on it, they hate when you do that.

Thanks for the info. I'll repot and keep an eye on it. I have to admit I was surprised to see a new stalk start on it. It must be a pretty hardy plant!

Penny