Tom, Garland, let me quote from one of my bibles - "Dendrobium and its
Relatives" by Lavarack, Harris & Stocker. All three are highly experienced &
qualified, & their work involves them in the orchids of the region from which D
laevifolium comes.

"... occurs in several islands to the east of New Guinea ... It grows from about
300 m to 2300 m altitude, in damp moss forests where it often occurs low down on
tree trunks ... While this species can be grown in warm conditions, cool to
intermediate temperatures are preferable. It can be grown on a slab, but a pot
of well-drained mixture is best, as the plants must not be allowed to dry out.
Year round heavy watering and shaded conditions with high humidity are
necessary."

It does *not* need to be dried out, & (depending on how cold your winters are)
do no more than reduce fertilising& watering in the colder months.

I have a plant that I was growing successfully in sphagnum in a saucer. Since
nearly all my collection is in bark & this was watered in summer with the rest,
it was *sodden*. And it did fine. Kept the sphagnum at least damp through the
winter. I've worried about that, & recently repotted into bark in the saucer.
Not sure if I did the right thing.

Forgive me for climbing on to a hobby horse for a moment: Dendrobes come from
such an incredible range of environments (hot wet steamy jungles, Aussie monsoon
areas with hot *dry* weather for 9 months - no winter, up to China, into the
Himalayan foothills, evergreen forests, deciduous forests) that the old mantra
of "water in the growing season, dry out in the resting period" can well be
disastrous for a plant, depending on where it comes from. You *must* know a
species' natural environment, and at least get somewhere near that. They are
adaptable to a degree - I have tropical phalaenanthes growing within metres of
temperate dendrocorynes, with the only considerations I can modify being light &
watering. But you still need to be aware of their preferred environment. Use a
library - you only need to look it up once for each species.

Complex hybrids? Ask someone who grows them, or guess from their constituent
species.

Here endeth the sermon for today :-)

On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 11:25:34 -0800, tbell wrote:

I have a Den. laevifolium, nicely crowded in a 1 1/2" pot, which got off to a
rocky start when my GH overheated 2 years ago, but is now leafing out
beautifully. Question: Is it time to dry it out and stop fertilizing, and if
so, how completely and for how long?

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D70
Dave Gillingham
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