Fertilise or not?
 

I bought this, my first Dendrobium, from our local IKEA a week or so ago. From what I've read I should not fertilise the plant unless there is new growth, which I believe is supposed to happen after flowering. Nobody seems to have told my plant! I'd guess that it was treated by the nursery to come into bloom now but there's a substantial new cane that's put out two more leaves since I brought it home. I have given it some orchid fertiliser because the new cane is growing, which I've read needs to be grown as hard as possible, but I don't want to damage the plant either of course.

I'd appreciate your thoughts, folks.

Keith

It's growing, so I suggest "fertilize". Watch the plant, not the calendar... During the winter (cool, dark) you should reduce water and perhaps not fertilizer, but I have found that drying out too much even then isn't good. I think that lower temperatures are more the trigger for flowers than lack of water. But now we're into summer. This is growing time, treat accordingly.

Thanks. That was my gut reaction but I wanted to be sure. The last thing I want to do is kill it by trying to be kind.

Keith

"Hard as possible" means as much light as possible short of sunburn, which I wouldn't imagine would be a problem in Derby. Most Dendrobiums need a lot of water when making new growth. Dendrobium is a very widespread genus in Asia, and there are plants from many different climates. But all of them need lots of water when making new growth.

Your beautiful plant is a Dendrobium nobile type hybrid. You [formerly could] read exactly how to grow it on the Yamamoto Dendrobiums Web site. Now is, indeed, its time to grow. They can be manipulated to flower at any time of the year by manipulating temperatures, and they generally begin new growth around the time they form buds.

Edit June 15 2020:
Yamamoto Dendrobiums in Japan hybridizes and produces a great number of these plants. Their Web site formerly had excellent growing information for hobbyists. Unfortunately it is no longer there. You can still look at the varieties they grow, and maybe see one very similar to yours.

I saved the page, and summarized it in a post in this thread:
Uncertain if Dendrobium is still alive

Yamamoto now has a page showing how to force Dendrobium nobile for Christmas flowering in Japan's climate. There is a lot to learn from that page, but it is intended for growers who can artificially heat and cool their greenhouses during off seasons. Note they use coconut husk for growing medium, which many orchidists would say retains too much water for orchids. For many orchids that is correct, but this is a very thirsty orchid.

It certainly isn't at the moment. We're having what, for us, is a heatwave with temperatures reaching the low thirties/high eighties every day for the last week. My three Dendrobiums are on a humidity tray, because the natural humidity is about 25% most of the day, on a table in our conservatory. The two Lady Colman are yellow-green and the No ID we're discussing was a very dark green but appears to be getting lighter from the top. The canes on all three are well hydrated and shiny.

I'm keeping a close eye on all my orchids at the moment and watering as and when they are dry to the touch.

It was sold as Dendrobium nobile but there was nothing else on the label. I had a good ferret through the plants on offer and found a couple that I liked the look of. A purple one had three new growths so would have been my first choice but my wife preferred this one. I have to say that it's a lovely sight whatever the colour and my only quibble is that it doesn't have a scent.

Thanks for the input.

Keith