Daily maintenance of Dendrobium roseum

Dendrobium is well known for its medicinal value, but there is a kind of Dendrobium that is regarded as a guest and palm treasure because of its gorgeous fragrance. Its name is Dendrobium roseum.

Dendrobium roseum is a perennial epiphytic herb of Dendrobium in Orchidaceae. It is native to some areas of Yunnan and Guizhou in China. It has beautiful stems and fragrant flowers and is an epiphytic orchid with great ornamental value. The plant cluster is compact and beautiful, and the average height of the whole plant is about 15 cm, so it is very suitable for small and medium-sized potted plants in families. As there is still not a large number of large-scale commercial breeding, most of the wild plants can be seen in the market. In order to protect this precious orchid resource, in addition to expanding commercial breeding, it is also necessary to improve and popularize family cultivation and breeding techniques.

The stem of Dendrobium roseum is about 1 cm thick, the stem height is about 15 cm, and some of them are more than 30 cm. Leaf blade semi-leathery, ca. 8 cm long and ca. 2 cm wide. There are about 5-10 leaves on the stem, and the number of leaves is highly related to the number of stem nodes and plants. The stem nodes wrapped in leaves have eye-catching white longitudinal stripes, which are very beautiful. Because it is deciduous Dendrobium, the leaves naturally wither and fall off in late autumn every year, and the old stems of the second year no longer sprout new leaves, so there are often two kinds of stems in the bushes: those without leaves are the old stems from previous years, and those with leaves are the new stems that germinated that year. Most of the plants naturally form 3-5 stems with tufted shape, and the exuberant ones can have more than 10 stems.

The florescence of Dendrobium roseum is in spring and inflorescences grow at the nodes of the old stem. There are more than 10 flowers on a stem and 1-3 flowers on each stem node. The florescence of the whole plant can be up to half a month, and the flowering period of a single flower is only a few days. The flower stem can reach 5 cm, the petals are light pink, the tongue petals are yellow and have a white edge. Flower stalk ca. 5 cm, lavender. The flowers are fragrant, and when they bloom in large quantities, they are so fragrant that they make people linger (figure 2). After artificial pollination, it can bear fruit. The fruit is about 5 cm long and 1 cm thick, with a large number of powdery seeds.

Plant planting

Dendrobium roseum is an epiphytic orchid, which is mostly born on the bark in the place of origin, so breathable orchid pot or direct plate planting should be selected in artificial cultivation. When potted, the orchid pot should not be too large, it can be planted under the root, which is conducive to root drainage and ventilation (figure 4). Bark blocks, water moss, charcoal blocks, gravel and other granular plants with a diameter of about 1 cm can be used alone or mixed. Board planting varies according to the geographical environment. In southern China, water moss can be used to cover fern boards to tie plants to the board. In the north, due to the relatively dry climate and little rain, ordinary light wood can be used, paved with water moss, and the roots of the plant can be tied to the water moss. For the sake of beauty and durability, it is recommended to use transparent fishing line when bundling, and the specific thickness model can be flexibly selected according to the actual situation.

If you do not have a breathable orchid basin on hand, you can also use ordinary pots to plant. But the pots should be as small as possible to prevent too much plant material and accumulate water in the roots for too long after water supply, so as to effectively avoid rotting rhizomes. When planting with ordinary pots, the plant material should be more loose and breathable. There are friends innovative use of pure coconut bran planting, but also achieved good results. When using pure coconut bran for planting, special attention should be paid to the water supply, and it must be given when the root plant is nearly dry to prevent excess.

As long as we understand the growth environment and requirements of Dendrobium roseum, and try to create a suitable environment for daily cultivation, the cultivation of Dendrobium roseum is very easy. The following three points should be paid special attention to in daily cultivation management, which is the key to the success or failure of cultivation:

1. Leaves and stems should be wet and roots should be dry. Stems and leaves should have enough air humidity, which is generally more than 60%. If the air humidity is too low, it is necessary to spray more. However, when the weather is hotter and there are new buds, try not to spray wet buds, and there should be no stagnant water on the buds to prevent them from rotting. Do not often wet the root, there should be a dry and wet change, wait until the root is dry and then give a second time of water. Generally speaking, too dry roots will not quickly lead to plant death, but too wet roots will often lead to rhizome rot, resulting in plant death.

two。 Sunscreen at the height of summer, bright light in daily life. In the hot summer season, you should avoid exposure to the sun. You can see more light in other seasons to help you thrive. Except in winter, it is best not to accept direct sunlight, but to shade about 30%.

3. Appropriate amount of fertilizer, ventilation and anti-freezing. As most of the artificial plants do not have enough fertilizer, the fertilizer should be added in time when planting Dendrobium roseum. The times of fertilization should not be too much and the concentration should be low. Usually in early spring, about 1 ‰ of phosphorus and potassium liquid fertilizer can be applied once. Liquid nitrogen fertilizer of 1 ‰ can be applied once a month in other growing seasons. Stop fertilizing during winter dormancy. On weekdays, Dendrobium roseum should be placed in a ventilated environment to facilitate its growth and shorten the drying time of root water. Dendrobium roseum leaves are dormant in winter, and this characteristic should be fully considered when planting. It should be fully dormant in the medium and low temperature environment where the lowest temperature at night is not less than 5 ℃ and the highest temperature during the day is not more than 20 ℃. Only in this way can it bloom more in the next spring. Although it is necessary to maintain a certain low temperature, the plant must not be frozen. In winter, the lowest temperature at night is controlled above 5 ℃ and exposed to sunlight during the day to survive the winter smoothly.

If the above three key points are mastered in daily maintenance, Dendrobium roseum must bloom beautiful and fragrant flowers every spring.

Reproduction and pest control

Because it is not easy to bear fruit and the high requirements of the environment for seed germination, it is difficult to use sowing method to propagate Dendrobium roseum in family planting. A small amount of propagation can be done by dividing plants into perennial clumps of plants, each of which should have new and old stems with a total amount of not less than 3. If you want to propagate in large numbers, you should use stem cuttage. The specific operation is as follows: cut the mature healthy and sturdy stem into small segments, each with 2-3 stem nodes, then plant them directly in the water moss or spread them on the surface of the water moss, spray and moisturize, wait for the sprouting buds on the stem nodes to grow new roots and leaves, and then break off and plant them at the right time. In daily cultivation, new buds often sprout naturally on the stem nodes of the old stem. After the seedlings grow leaves and have roots of 2 cm to 3 cm, they can be broken off and planted separately.

Dendrobium roseum has strong resistance to diseases and insect pests. Most of the occasional diseases are root rot and stem rot caused by bacteria, which are mainly caused by poor air permeability of plant materials and excessive water retention in roots for a long time. As long as the air permeability of plant materials is improved and the water supply of roots is controlled, the occurrence of rhizome rot can be effectively avoided. The insect pest of Dendrobium roseum is rare and can be caught manually in time after it is found.