Question
I got this dendrobium for free at Ebay in Feb.  The leaves started turning yellow and fell off and the stalks are shrivelled up and yellowish green.  There is also a powdery white appearance to them.  The roots seems ok but i am not sure.  They are beigey brown, somewhat firm.  When I noticed the problem, I quickly transferred the plant to a much smaller clay orchid pot, cut off damaged roots and left the plant outside for 1/2 hour to dry out the roots bec I was afraid it was root rot.  Then I planted it in the clay pot, applied root hormone and watered it with fert & Superthrive.  Now, I heard that dends need a lot of sun and so now I put it out in full sun.  I am afraid to see what happened when I get home.  What should i do?  Is my dend dying or going into dormancy in april?  Do you think it mighit be a pest - although I don't see any.  thanks.

Answer
Hello Diane,

I'm afraid I could not locate any information about your dendrobium (Sri Siam X Nuri Michener) X Sutiknoll on the internet.  With a little detective work I located a Dendrobium (Sri Siam x Mari Michener) x Sufiknoi, could this be the name of yours?  Here is a link to a photo:  http://www.pbase.com/ekchua/image/73231411  Does it look like yours?  

Assuming that it is, what I can tell from the photo is that it should be from the evergreen family of dendrobiums.  Although evergreen dendrobium growths or canes do eventually lose their leaves, it is unusual for all of them to fall from all the canes at the same time.  

You did not mention where you live or where and how you are growing it, but here are some general guidelines for what it likes.  Bright indirect sunlight with several hours of early morning direct sun.  Temperatures between 55F to 85F with humidity above 50% along with some light air movement around it.  Water it when the potting media becomes barely moist but do not allow it to become completely dry.  During active growth (late winter through early fall) keep it on the moist side then reduce watering the remainder of the year.  Except for the watering, try to keep the other conditions about the same year round.  

Question.  Prior to the leaves falling off, did you happen to water the leaves along with the pot?  If you did, that may have contributed to the leaves developing a fungus that caused them to die and fall off.  

As for the powdery white appearance on the canes, it probably is the remnant of dried leaves.  You can remove it by peeling it off, it will probably come off in chunks or strips and be sort of flakey.  

Does the clay pot have a drainage hole on the bottom?  I hope so because you do not want the roots to sit in water for very long.  

Hope this helped but if you have further questions or clarification of something above, write back and I'll try to help with them.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.