Can the high-level buds of Dendrobium be transplanted now?

Dendrobium likes a warm, humid and well-ventilated growing environment. It is relatively shade-tolerant but not tolerant of direct strong light. In the wild, it usually grows on the bark of large tree trunks or in rock crevices. It can be seen that Dendrobium is both a plant with relatively strong vitality and an epiphytic plant. Because of its extremely high edible and medicinal value and its good ornamental value, its economic value has multiplied, so it has been highly sought after since ancient times.

But Dendrobium is also a plant with fleshy roots. It is relatively drought-tolerant but not tolerant of waterlogging, and it generally absorbs and supplies nutrients through the roots in the growing medium. When the root absorption capacity declines, the plant is more likely to grow high-level buds from the stems, and white aerial roots will also grow from the base of the high-level buds.

Through these aerial roots, the plant absorbs nutrients, water and oxygen from the air, thereby ensuring that the high-level buds can continue to grow. But the growth of high-level buds by the plant is also a sign of poor growth. Continuing to let them remain on the Dendrobium stems will only consume nutrients from the mother plant. When the mother plant's roots are unsuitable, this often accelerates the mother plant's decline toward death.

In this case, some friends may think of using these high-level buds for transplanting and propagating new small Dendrobium potted seedlings. If possible, then we naturally make full use of resources, avoid waste, and at the same time reduce the burden on the mother plant and avoid greater losses for us.

As for handling these high-level buds, we can cut them off and throw them away, but that wastes resources, since the whole Dendrobium plant is valuable. Generally, they are picked off for use as food ingredients or tea, but this is not the only use. We can usually also transplant them into pots, thereby cultivating more new Dendrobium potted plants.

But generally, we need to wait until the root system of these high-level buds grows to a length of about 2 cm or more before transplanting, so that the survival rate is higher. And even so, we do not want a normally growing Sansevieria trifasciata to show the phenomenon of growing high-level buds, as this is a relatively dangerous signal for Dendrobium. Even if we transplant and propagate the high-level buds, we also need to replace the growing medium for the mother plant in time, because generally the mother plant only grows high-level buds when problems occur with the growing medium and it becomes unsuitable for the mother plant's growth.