Dendrobium help!
 

Hi there,

At the start of the year, I inherited a dendrobium from my father in law. In the beginning I tried to find as much information as possible to keep it going, it flowered in early summer, and seemed happy, however, towards the end of the summer, it has not been happy, and one of the canes has just died.

What do I need to do? I live in Japan, and we had a hot summer, so I watered it about once every 10 days, and kept it indoors in partial sunlight. I feel like the pot may be too crowded, and maybe the potting medium is damaging its development?

Any ideas?

dendrobiums like wet feet. a bark media and water more often should do it. if you put it in course bark you can water every day and it will be happy.

What you have is a Dendrobium nobile type.
By the end of the summer they lose most of its leaves so this is normal behaviour, not a problem.
When it starts to happen reduce watering drastically and stop fertilizing. When spring starts you'll notice new growths...that's a signal to start watering and fertilizing again. But before that, it will bloom, also from the "canes" that you think are dying.
During cooler season give it also cooler temps and bright light (avoid direct sun)

the pot is not breathable and the medium looks old and broken down.

Your plant looks like mine that started loosing some roots. Could be natural progression but if you inspect the roots and smell anything mushroomy the problem will just keep spreading unless you treat the fungus and give them some airier bark medium.

Certainly could use a repot into some fresh medium and make sure that pot has good drainage.

Indeed!

Thanks all!

I could not find any time up until now to do anything, but I have repotted it into a larger pot. I will keep an eye on it over the next few days and see how it reacts.

The old medium was bark, and it was quite tightly packed in the roots. I've replaced it with some new bark mixed with some light stones. The cane I thought was dead had gone yellow and is soft to the touch; I really think it has died off, but I have kept it in case it does come back.

Will update if anything else happens.

Even if it's good news!:)

Of course :)

It sounds and looks like the old cane is dead. If its yellow and mushy, it isn’t coming back. I’d cut it at the base and remove it. The mushiness could be indicative of some sort of infection.