New developments on unidentified Dendrobiums
 

Hi all,
I'm an addict, lets get that straight. I started with two phals bought from the refuse pile at a reputable nursery a few months ago, and since then I have rescued about 10 more various types. I refuse to buy any that are not on sale or past their bloom-and-doom merchandising cycle at this point due to my limited knowledge, but my green thumb is well suited for such rescue operations.

Anyway, to get to the point, I have two dendrobium noids and since they were purchased without a bloom, I haven't been able to ID them; maybe their identity will be discovered after I explain the problem. The first one I bought last month wasn't in the greatest shape root-wise, so I decided to re-pot in a mix of bark, charcoal and a little sphagnum. Following re-potting, I watered once with weak nute solution bought from an orchid dealer who said she uses michigan state university orchid nutes. Over the next few days all the leaves turned yellow, dried up and fell off. I did some reading and realized I could have bought a dendro that required a winter rest period. Doh! but no big deal; I figured the cane would have enough stored nutes to support new growth. Last week I noticed at the top of the two largest canes, five or six green buds started to emerge. I'm hoping they are keikis as has been suggested by some members here, but don't know for sure. Has anyone had similar symptoms with their dendrobiums, and should I re-start watering and fertilizing? Or do I let the noids do their thing? Thanks in advance everyone!

Could be keikis or flower spikes. My nobile type (the kind that like a rest and lose leaves) is flowering right now. Fertilizing when the plant should be making flowers is likely to result in Keikis and not flowers. You will need to wait a bit to see how they develop. I would not fertilize right now (unless you really want keikis and not flowers), but would start watering to support growth of the developing buds. I always start watering when buds start forming (there are some species Dens that a stricter on the when to water part, but if you bought on sale from a non-specialist grower, it's likely just a hybrid and can start watering now). You may want to google Yamamoto's website on nobile hybrids. Pretty much all modern nobile hybrids are from him or his plants. It has a shedule about resting etc.

Good luck! Oh and posting a pic would probably clarify things a bit.

Hey Orkie,
I would prefer to get keikis, rather than blooms. Unlike my girlfriend (and everyone else) I prefer the vegetative GREEN growth over the blooms, and would love to have keikis instead of blooms, so I might go with the nute route.

ps. I'll post pics as soon as I upload them from my D-SLR