Question
My mother has had a dendrobium for 4+ years. It had outgrown it's pot and was growing over the side. She had ripped off 3 of the earlier stalks that were rather tall and gangly. The remaining two were intact and the plant was sprouting a new shoot. The plant has not bloomed in at least 3 years.

I am only a novice, but I offered to repot the dendrobium for her. Three months agao, I divided the stumps from the healthy stalks and repotted both. The stalks and new shoot are doing well, but the little stumps (which had healthy roots) do not seem to be bouncing back. There are no 'eyes' on that plant, and I can detect no new roots. The stumps are yellowish, withered and very dry.

Should I abandon this little plant, or do you think there is still hope for it?

Many thanks,
Stephanie

Answer
Hello Stephanie,

Your mother "ripped off" 3 of the stalks?  Wow!  Remind me to not get in an argument with her!  (grin)  

Actually, she probably should not have taken those stalks off the dendrobium and instead repotted and divided it as you did three months ago.  When you repotted and divided what was left of it, did you put them into pots that would barely contain the roots or into larger pots with lots of room for the roots to grow into?  The reason I ask this is because dendrobiums prefer having their roots confined, even to the point of almost bursting the pot.  If you potted them into larger pots, do not dispair.  Get a couple of smaller pots similar to the original size and repot them into them.  

Now for the unfortunate or bad news.  As mentioned earlier, dendrobiums like to have their roots crowded in the pot, the same goes for the stalks.  If there are only one or two stalks left per division, it may take another two years before new stalks can grow and mature berfore the dendrobium is ready to produce blooms.  You might get lucky and it will produce blooms with only two or three stalks but I wanted to warn you that it may be longer.  

Now for bad news number two.  If the stalks your mother ripped off were the younger stalks, leaving the older stalks, the older stalks may not have a growth eye available to produce a new stalk.  Hopefully, she took out the older stalks and left the newer ones.  

The good news is that your mother did manage to keep it alive for over four years!  She must have been doing a pretty good job with it other than ripping off the stalks.  Why it had not produced blooms during that time may have been due to where she had it growing.  Most dendrobiums prefer bright indirect sunlight but can withstand early morning direct sunlight with no problem.  The plant will tell you if it is receiving enough sunlight by the leaf color.  Dendrobium leaves should be a medium green color when receiving good light levels, dark green means too shady and light green or yellow-green means too much.  

Hope this is of some help.  Sorry for being so long winded.  Good luck and good growing.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.