Help Brassia growing horizontally

[monivik]

So my question is what can I do with a Brassia that is gowing horizontally rather than vertically? Besides that it's also grown sort of on top of the medium, so that the roots are not in the medium but yeah aerial roots? I know Phalaenpsis grow aerial roots, but is this a good thing with a Brassia?

The Brassia was huge, and was definitely growing out of it's pot, so I divided it and repotted it a couple of months ago. So I've got 3 plants now, from 1. The hardest thing when repotting was that I didn't want to make the divisions with less than 3 pseudobulbs, because I read somewhere that orchids with pseudobulbs needs at least a number of 3 to do well. The problem was that to get 3 some pseudobulbs had sort of grown in different directions, like far apart, and some horizontally and some higher up than the others (with that I mean high above the medium). So now I've still got some above the medium, and the roots are above the medium, but see if I'd forced it downwards when repotting that would have meant that at least one of the bulbs would have had to go underneath the medium and that's not a good idea (I've experienced rotten pseudobulbs in Oncidiums before because of this.)

So what I've done now, to solve the problem with these "aerial roots" is put as much as spaghnum moss around the roots. Is this ok? Or does anyone have another suggestion?

My second concern and the title of this thread is: I've just noticed that one of the "plants" is starting to make a new pseudobulb. It's just a tiny little growth at the moment but it's growing from one of the horizontal psuedobulbs and so it's growing in the direction of into the medium? HELP! What can I do? This can't be good...

[Bulbopedilum]

No experience with Brassia, but I wouldn't do anything and just let it grow.

Not sure what's wrong with it growing horizontally.

As for the aerial roots, if there are no live roots that are in the medium and sticking to the medium, I'd say wrapping some moss around the aerial is a good idea, to keep them from drying too quickly.

As for the growth going into the medium, I'd do nothing, it will most likely find which way it should be growing and redirect itself.

[Veksa]

For a new growth I would put a large flat piece of bark underneath it, and orient it toward the light, so it will grow upwards. Also clear pot may not be a good idea.

[Ray]

You can repot the plants and stake them into a more vertical orientation. I cannot tell you how many times I've used a piece of stiff wire to form a loop around the plants to keep them that way as they grew.

Take a piece of stiff wire and stick it in the pot, pushing it to the bottom, so it's firm. At the point where the wire reaches about 2/3 of the way up the plant (you may have to play with the height), make a 90-degree bend. Reshape the horizontal part of the wire into a loop around the plants.

The fact is, some plants are climbers, some prefer to spread horizontally, and some vertically. We just have to deal with it.

[monivik]

Originally Posted by Bulbopedilum

No experience with Brassia, but I wouldn't do anything and just let it grow.

Not sure what's wrong with it growing horizontally.

As for the aerial roots, if there are no live roots that are in the medium and sticking to the medium, I'd say wrapping some moss around the aerial is a good idea, to keep them from drying too quickly.

As for the growth going into the medium, I'd do nothing, it will most likely find which way it should be growing and redirect itself.

Thanks. Yes, in regards to the roots: no unfortunately there are not many roots and they're not that long so certainly not in the medium. The thing is that I waiting way too long to repot and the old medium had gone bad and there weren't many roots left to save, they'd all rotten. So I'm starting anew. It's been a couple of months since I repotted it though, I must say new root growth is very slow.

---------- Post added at 09:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Veksa

For a new growth I would put a large flat piece of bark underneath it, and orient it toward the light, so it will grow upwards. Also clear pot may not be a good idea.

Thanks, I didn't actually think about the pot though, clear or not clear. I sort of changed all my pots to clear, because I had heard that's better, at least one can see how the roots are doing and if the medium is dry or still wet. Anyway I guess that's practical as most of my orchids are Phalaenopsis.

---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

You can repot the plants and stake them into a more vertical orientation. I cannot tell you how many times I've used a piece of stiff wire to form a loop around the plants to keep them that way as they grew.

Take a piece of stiff wire and stick it in the pot, pushing it to the bottom, so it's firm. At the point where the wire reaches about 2/3 of the way up the plant (you may have to play with the height), make a 90-degree bend. Reshape the horizontal part of the wire into a loop around the plants.

The fact is, some plants are climbers, some prefer to spread horizontally, and some vertically. We just have to deal with it.

Thanks. I'm so excited that I got so many replies and so soon. Thank you this is handy, I'll see what I can do. Yeah, it was my fault repotting was way over due and I let this Brassia grow out of it's pot, I guess it had no other choice but to grow sideways.

I'm so excited though to see the first new growth. To be honest, I repotted it months ago and nothing seemed to be happening. No new roots, nothing... Is this normal? Do Brassias grow very slow?

[WaterWitchin]

I'd do as Ray said, and repot more vertically just to start. On first picture, the pbulb with no leaf? Go ahead and redistribute so that pbulb is further down in media, others have a more vertical growth. Probably same with the other, but I can't see the whole plant. Work toward orienting the newest lead, not the tail end of it.

Yes, they'll be a little slower, because you just divided them. The new growth is encouraging and means it'll start taking off soon. And as stated, wrangle them around a little.

And I encourage clear pots, especially with newer growers for that very reason... you can see better what's going on below the media. I don't have anything that's not in a clear container of some sort. Except for a Cymb in a wastebasket container, but that's not on point for this venue.

[Roberta]

As long as you can keep them hydrated (a bit of moss around the aerial roots is a good idea) they're fine that way. In fact, I have found that Brassias tend to want to climb out of the pot, grow better (with roots all over the place) once they have escaped over the edge. I have concluded that the plants that grow like crazy after escaping the pot didn't want to be there in the first place... and are candidates for baskets or mounting. (Brassias are mostly too big to manage easily on a mount, think of a basket as a three-dimensional mount). Minimal medium, just enough to maintain hydration.