Horticulture Digest #105
DENDROBIUM LIM CHONG MIN, UH1382

• History of Selections
• Characteristics of Lim Chong Min
• Spray Yields
• Summary

History of Selections

Dendrobium Caesar, UH921 was released to growers as a seed-propagated potted plant cultivar in 1989. UH921 is a cross between D. stratiotes and the short-statured D. phalaenopsis var. compactum, D291, with pseudobulbs only 3 in ches tall. The offspring are floriferous, and the pseudobulbs during the first year in production averaged 16 inches. The incidence of bud drop in most D. Caesar crosses is high, but UH921 is relatively free of bud drop.

Among UH921 offspring an individual plant was selected, placed in tissue culture and the protocorm-like bodies were treated with colchicine to induce chromosome doubling. The induced tetraploid (amphidiploid) D. Caesar (K921-20) was then used to pr oduce several progenies, one of which, K1382, performed well as flowering potted plants.

The amphidiploid D. Caesar, K921-20, was crossed to D. phalaenopsis var. compactum, D356-1 on March 11, 1990, and germinated on June 28, 1990. Fertility was excellent with 95 percent apparently viable seeds. It was transflasked on Nov ember 9. 1990, compotted on February 5, 1991, potted into 2-inch pots on June 18, 1991 and moved into 5-inch plastic pots on August 29, 1992.
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Characteristics of D. Lim Chong Min

The characteristics of D. Lim Chong Min, UH1382, are as follows:

Flower width (in)                       2.8 + 0.18

Flower length (in)                      2.2 + 0.18

Petal length (in)                       1.7 + 0.13

Petal width (in)                        0.8 + 0.88

Pedicel length (in)                     1.2 + 0.08

Number of flowers per spray             8.0 + 5.3

Scape length (in)                       5.3 + 1.13

Raceme length (in)                     12.6 + 2.04

Leaf length (in)                        4.6 + 0.35

Leaf width(in)                          1.4 + 0.10

Pseudobulb height at first              4.0 + 1.25
flower (in)

Pseudobulb height upon termination     14.9 + 3.93
of evaluation (in)

Flower color (RHSCC)                   Purple-violet 80A 

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Spray Yields

The spray yield of UH1382 from October, 1992 to August 1994 are presented in Table 1. Flowering was heavier between July through December than between January through June.

Table 1. Monthly and annual spray yield of Dendrobium Lim Chong Min, UHl382 (based on 36 plants).

MONTH           1992    1993    1994    TOTAL

Jan                       2      12      14

Feb                       4       6      10

Mar                       0       9       9

Apr                       4       1       5

May                       4       0       4

Jun                       6       0       6

Jul                      28      39      67

Aug                      16      42      58

Sep                      20              20

Oct               6      33              39

Nov              22      35              57

Dec               0      19              19

TOTAL            28     216     109     308

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Summary

Dendrobium Lim Chong Min, UH1382, has been released to dendrobium growers as a seed propagated potted plant cultivar.

• It is floriferous and produces flowers on relatively short pseudobulbs.
• First flowering was obtained on pseudobulbs only 4 inches tall, and after two years of flower production, pseudobulbs averaged 15 inches.
• Although the flower parts are narrow, the natural spread of flowers averaged 2.8 inches across.
• Bud drop percent was not available for UH1382, but bud drop of a similar cross using D. phalaenopsis var. compactum, D355 instead of D356-1 was 7 percent.
• Thus, D. Lim Chong Min, UH1382 should complement other University of Hawai'i potted plant cultivars released earlier.

H. Kamemoto, haruyuki@hawaii.edu
A. R. Kuehnle, heidi@hawaii.edu
T. D. Amore and N. C. Sugii

Dept. of Horticulture

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