Up next in 10
Specific Orchid Care During Dormancy (How to Keep your Orchid Alive While In Dormancy)
6K views
Oct 3, 2024
Is my Orchid Dead or Dormant? Top 8 Questions About Dormancy Once an orchid has blossomed, displaying its beautifully exotic flowers, it will go into a dormant cycle. Some orchids have a shorter dormant cycle while others need a little longer time to recover. Orchid dormancy starts after the last flower has fallen off the flower spike and can look very different in every species. Some hardly have any signs; others look half-dead. In this video, I'll go over the top most common questions new orchid growers have when it comes to dormancy. 1) How do I know my orchid is dead? 2) Do all the Leaves Drop During Dormancy? 3) Why is it Important to Repot during Dormancy? 4) Is Crown Rot Normal During Dormancy? 5) Do All Orchids Respond to Dormancy the Same Way? 6) How Long do Orchids Live? 7) How do I Care for Dormant Orchids That Look Half-dead? 8) How do I Induce a Dormancy Period? If you want the full explanation of this video in writing, go to https://orchideria.com/orchid-dormancy/
View Video Transcript
0:00
Once an orchid blossoms and it comes out with these beautiful flowers, it's going to go into
0:06
a period of dormancy. Now not all orchids have a period of dormancy. So in this video I'm going
0:13
to go over the top eight questions that people have about dead or dormant orchids. Because sadly
0:20
some of these orchids do end up in the trash can after this period of dormancy because you think
0:27
what are they doing? Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video at Orchidaria
0:32
where I share my tips of how to grow orchids indoors since my outside conditions are not that great
0:39
See, some orchids go through this period of dormancy where they're not in active growth
0:44
They are absorbing water and nutrients, but hardly any. Some can look like this where all the leaves almost fall off
0:52
This is a Dendrobium orchid and it is starting to come out of dormancy with new
0:58
little, new little canes growing around here. This is another dendrobrium orchid, but if you get this orchid
1:06
and you don't look at this part, that's pretty dead. So dormancy can look very different and the
1:14
probably the worst orchid for looking dead is a catecidum orchid. Now, these do look horrible because
1:23
in dormancy, they're not going to have this part. They're just going to have this bent
1:28
suitable. Dormancy will differ in the way the orchid looks by how long this orchid has a
1:36
dormancy cycle. So if the dormancy cycle is extremely tiny, the effects will hardly be any at all
1:43
If the dormancy like a catacetum can go up to months, then yes, it's going to look pretty bad
1:51
The first thing you want to know is if your orchid is actually alive or dead during this
1:56
dormancy period because orchids can die at any time. And you might be, you know, waiting for this
2:03
dead orchid to come back to life and it's not. So one thing you need to do is research. Not all orchids
2:11
have a dormancy period. A phalanopsis, for example, doesn't. So your phallinopsis will not go into
2:19
dormancy. It will drop off all the leaves and then it will start a new cycle. But that's
2:26
does not include dormancy. It just goes right back in to producing new roots, new leaves
2:32
and a new flower spike. If your orchid does have a dormancy, the second thing you're going to want
2:38
to look at, the first is if it is, if it does have dormancy, the second is how long is this dormant
2:43
period? So if your orchid has a teeny tiny dormant period and all the sudden your orchid is
2:50
dropping all the leaves or all the roots are dying off, and you have severe
2:56
crown discoloration which is the center of the orchid. Those three signs you're going to probably
3:03
signify yeah your orchid needs a trash can. Of course if your orchid has a longer period of
3:10
dormancy these are going to be normal and expected. For example this one was beautiful. It still will be
3:19
signs of dormancy they do not move they do not react. Second question
3:26
Do all dormant orchids drop their leaves? No they don The most famous orchids for dropping leaves are catacetum orchids are dendrobiums and lycustes but not all will
3:40
So if you have an orchid that is not these three and it's dropping every single leaf, like a catelia orchid
3:47
if this starts dropping its leaves, there's something severely wrong with it
3:52
Or if it's a brassavola orchid, also you need to really look into that and see what is happening
4:00
The third question is why is it important to repot during dormancy
4:05
Now orchids love stability. They love to be in one place for life. They love to not be touched
4:12
not be mess with, you know, take off the shelf, put it back on the shelf, turn it around
4:17
repop, get a bigger pot, put it by the window seal, take it off the window seal. They hate that
4:24
I mean, if you can leave your orchid alone and just put it for one place and leave it
4:29
and leave it there and preferably set up a system where you can water and put it back in the same place
4:36
that it was even in the same direction, your orchid will grow a lot better, a lot faster
4:42
and a lot livelier than if you're always moving it. So in this cycle of repotting
4:49
why are we going to repot while it's in dormancy? Because it's not gonna feel it that much
4:55
Most of these orchids you're going to repot will lose all their roots
4:59
anyway and they're going to grow new ones. For example, the catacetum orchid. You can already tell that it's growing new
5:05
roots on the side. The fourth question is, is it common to have crown rot during dormancy? Now, crown rot occurs
5:14
because of overwatering or misting and it does, and you're in a place where there's not moving air circulation
5:21
so that water is going to sit on the leaf a long time before it evaporate. Orchids aren't made to be submerged in
5:29
They compare it like this. They don't like to have wet socks on all day long. I mean, it's fun to go out, play in a river, playing a pond, in a lake, in the ocean. But then you get out, you dry off, and you don't stay completely soggy and wet the whole time. Well, an orchid's the same way. They love water, but they love to dry out too. So if your room does not have air circulation, if you're, you placed it in the window still, but close the window and there's no wind
5:59
coming in or if you don't have an overhead fan. I know you can't see it in the video, but there's an
6:04
overhead fan in here because this is my home office. This is where I work. So you have to keep that
6:09
air running. Now the most common problem with crown rot during dormancy is that you're watering
6:17
You should not be watering at least not as much as you would have orchid that is in full bloom
6:25
Keep it watered, but extremely, extremely small doses, because if not, you are going to cause crown rot
6:32
All those nutrients and all that hydration in there, it's just going to rot out the roots
6:37
And if you get water on the crown and the stem in the center of the orchid, that is going to cause crown rot
6:45
Before I go on to the next question, if you are liking this video, please give it a like or comment down below
6:52
So I know what videos to do more of. Give me some kind of feedback. It really helps me. In the long run, it helps you because you'll get better videos from this
7:02
The fifth question is do all orchids respond to dormancy in a different way Yes they do Each orchid will have a higher or a low or you know different things that goes through during dormancy Some dormancy periods are so tiny tiny tiny
7:22
It's almost considered as if they don't have a dormancy period. And this is where a lot of people will
7:28
disagree about the phalanopsis orchid. I've seen both sides. I've seen people who say they do
7:34
but it's so tiny you can't even see it. I've seen other people say, no, that's ridiculous
7:39
They don't. The sixth question about dormancy. How long does an orchid live anyway
7:48
I mean, what if I'm actually, what if I have a dead orchid? It just came to the natural death of its life cycle
7:54
and I'm just sitting here waiting for it to bloom, and it's not going to do anything
7:58
How long do orchids live? In nature. Oh, this is such a
8:04
unfair answer. In nature, orchids will live up to a hundred years or 150 years
8:10
Indoorse, that's going to be extremely different because, I mean, I can fertilize them
8:19
as much as I want. I can water them right. I can provide the bright light for them. I can
8:25
do everything right, but it's still not home. In general, most of these orchids will live up to
8:31
20 to 30 years. I have seen homegrown orchids live up to 50, but they have a huge misting system and it's
8:40
almost professional. Like the seventh question about orchids is how do you care for an orchid that is
8:47
dormant? Now first, verify that your orchid is dormant. If all your suitables or in this case
8:54
canes are shrinking, then yes, your orchid is going into dormancy. If it's just one and all the other
9:01
are nice and plump and full of juice, then you might have some kind of pest or insect that is
9:09
eating on your orchid. So check into that. Check into it might be a fungus that is just sucking out
9:15
all the nutrients from this orchid. So make sure that your orchid is a suitable shrinking
9:21
a leaf dropping, a root decaying little plant, and now you are certain that it's in dormancy
9:30
How to care for this? Well, first you're going to halt the watering. And it's not going to use the water. It doesn't have the roots for that
9:37
You're going to stop or halt the fertilizing completely. You do not need to add fertilizer to a dormant orchid
9:46
It's not going to use it. It's not absorbing anything. Also, drop the temperatures because usually, this is not for all cases
9:55
Usually your orchid that goes into dormancy comes from a place. where the temperatures are going to drop during this time
10:03
And you're going to drop the light requirements. So don't keep your orchid like a dendrobrium
10:10
Really loves light. Usually I keep my dendrobiums on the top shelf
10:14
a little bit behind the cattlias. But during dormancy, I'll move them from here to this shelf
10:23
Now this is weird. I'll move them from the top shelf to the second shelf
10:28
where they get less light. less light along with all the other phalanopsis orchids
10:33
So when your orchid does go into dormancy, you keep it away from the light
10:38
See when you see it starting to come out of dormancy start increasing your water start increasing your light The orchid comes out of dormancy because it senses this shift in the environment So it senses how many hours of light it gets a day
10:54
It also senses the brightness of this light. It senses how strong this light is
11:00
It senses the humidity in the air. It senses how much water it's getting through its roots
11:06
So all those signal to the orchid, hey, it's time to put out new roots
11:10
Hey, it's time to put out a new leaf. Hey, it's time to grow a new pseudobob
11:14
Hey, it's time to get back into the swing of things. So all these things are going to influence
11:20
So if you can do those and mimic those inside your environment
11:25
you will induce that orchid to come out of dormancy. One important note, if you water during dormancy and keep your main water schedule
11:35
like if I water all of these the same way, dormant orchid is going to get
11:40
root rot because the water's not going to be absorbed inside that pot it's just
11:44
gonna sit there the roots aren't actually doing anything with this water and
11:49
the water's not going to drain that fast so you will get root rot if you keep
11:56
watering during dormancy question number eight can you induce your orchids to
12:01
go dormant yes you can't remember there are three mainly three things that will
12:06
induce this and that is a drop in temperature, shorter days, and less rain. So all these are going to induce that orchid to go into
12:18
dormancy. So let's put that into practical terms. Let's say you want to induce dormancy to then
12:24
induce a later to induce a flower spike. So the first thing you're going to do, less light. So if you
12:32
keep your artificial lights on from 14 to 16 hours a day, you need to really drop that to about 10 to
12:39
12 hours a day. You're going to, instead of water, you will need to mist or keep your humidifier on
12:48
Just because your orchid is not absorbing water doesn't mean that it moved from a very humid place
12:54
to a desert. And turn your thermostat down a few degrees, especially at night. You can really
13:01
drop that. So during the day, you're going to drop it about 10 degrees at night. You'll want to
13:07
drop at about 15 degrees. And I do want to say one thing about my new book that is almost coming out
13:15
I mean, it's like a few days away from coming out. Oh, bye cat. So in my book, I do have an entire
13:23
chapter about the blooming cycle. And I talk about if it's dead or if it's dormant. And I've
13:29
included pages in here so you can keep notes of up to 30 orchids of when it bloomed, when it came
13:36
out of bloom when the new roots grew. So in the first year you'll have all this and then in the second
13:41
year you'll have parameters to keep that orchid alive, to keep it blooming, to keep it alive
13:48
and well. So stay on the lookout for orchid journey. If you haven't, you can look at this link down here
13:54
which is orchidaria.com slash orchid journey. And there's a dash in there between. I recommend two
14:03
videos and they are right here and you can watch either one of those or if you have not subscribed to
14:09
my channel you can click the button in the middle and it will subscribe you in all thank you so much for
14:16
watching this video and i wish you the best in your orchid care happy cultivating