By Kempey
Lancashire, United Kingdom
can you take cuttings off dendrobium orchid when it has started to send like roots out of the main stem
On plant
Dendrobium
- 27 Jul, 2010
Answers
thanks do you know why some times the leaves go stickey and some leaves have like white flufy spots
11 Aug, 2010
That's mealybugs. If you gently brush off some of the white stuff, you will find little armadillo-shaped gray or pinkish bugs underneath. The sticky "varnish" is their droppings--mostly undigested sugar from the poor orchids sap. Sometimes they will die with a thorough spraying of soapy water, but more often you will need to add carbaryl to the soap mixture. Either way it will take several applications. Really severe infestations may require immersing the plant in a carbaryl and surfactant--like soap, but less toxic to the roots--solution for 10 minutes or so. Some books recommend touching each spot of mealybugs with an artist's brush soaked in rubbing alcohol, but I have found that this leaves dead spots on the leaves and stems. Good luck, they can be stubborn little bugs!
11 Aug, 2010
Kempey, sorry it took so long to answer. Cuttings are possible, but not the best way to reproduce them, since they have a high mortality rate. I would either divide the clumps of stems, once you have more than 5 to a clump, when the new growth starts in early spring. Sometimes you will also get sprouts off the stems, called "keikis" for the Hawaiian word for babies, and they can make new plants once they grow a few roots from where they started sprouting. Hope this helps!
7 Aug, 2010