Care tips for Vanda with non-planted roots???

[orchidee_de_la_mer]

Hello!

Here s another one: I just got as a gift from my brother a beautiful purple-blue vanda orchid... and it is not planted... it's hanging off a small plastic suspended basket and its roots are hanging freely without any soil or moss for about a meter under the little basket...

In the flower store they gave him a care instruction sheet suggesting this:

- needs a very great amount of light (3 to 5 hrs of
direct sun, east, west or south)
- Mist daily once or twice depending of the heat they
receive
- Feed it regularly: - once a week with full strength
30-10-10 (if warm; summer)
- once a month, to promote blooms
with 10-54-10
- if weather is cool fertalize only
every two to four weeks
- A minimum winter temperature of 55F is recomanded.
Colder nights can be tolerated for a short time if it's
not windy. Optimum temperatures are 60F at night and
a maximum of 95F during the day.

I was wondering if this was good and if there should be something else that I should know about carring for this orchid...

Thanks!

Barb

[cb977]

All of that seems like good advice...many vandas are grown in baskets with nothing else...and some are just hung on a wire without even a basket! LOL

Some advice...when misting the roots, wet them until the white covering on them turns transparent and you can see green. This might not happen on the first try, if it doesn't, get it as wet as possible then go and do something else for 20 minutes...then go back and wet them again. You should see the green by the second round. Once you accomplish this the first time, you usually won't have to do the second wetting again.

I don't use Bloom Booster, it's really not necessary...and vandas are fine down to about 50 degrees for a short period of time.

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[shams]

In Whistler... the occasional dunking in a bucket or in the kitchen sink would do them well also All my Vandas get a "bath" every other day if not everyday. These are great, because you just can't over water!

[Spook In Spain]

Hi there

Have recently obtained a Vanda with blue/Purple flowers the plant is approx 4 ft high from the flowers at the top and to the bottom of the roots, there is no potting mix just a small basket with the roots hanging down, all the flowers have finished apart from the top spike.

I understand these can be high maintenance compared to other orchid types.
At the moment I am misting with a bottle spray untill the roots turn greenish then leave for 10-15 min and then a couple of squirts of fertilizer from another misting bottle, this seems to be working as several new roots are appearing.

If anybody has any other ideas on keeping these Vandas
i would like to hear from them, I dont know how much these orchids cost elsewhere but I paid €25 for this one compared to €8-9 for other types here in Spain.

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[FSUOrchids]

Originally Posted by Spook In Spain

Hi there

Have recently obtained a Vanda with blue/Purple flowers the plant is approx 4 ft high from the flowers at the top and to the bottom of the roots, there is no potting mix just a small basket with the roots hanging down, all the flowers have finished apart from the top spike.

I understand these can be high maintenance compared to other orchid types.
At the moment I am misting with a bottle spray untill the roots turn greenish then leave for 10-15 min and then a couple of squirts of fertilizer from another misting bottle, this seems to be working as several new roots are appearing.

If anybody has any other ideas on keeping these Vandas
i would like to hear from them, I dont know how much these orchids cost elsewhere but I paid €25 for this one compared to €8-9 for other types here in Spain.

Personally with my vandas I take a garden hose and spray them for a few minutes, I don't know if misting is enough. I think it depends on temperature.

Since roots are appearing it's clearly doing OK for now.

To make fertilizing easier, I have some balanced water-release fertilizer that I have in a small cutting of pantihose, that way whenever I spray the plant it receives a little bit of fertilizer every time. It's working really well, my plants are growing roots like crazy.

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[tucker85]

The vendor's recommendations sound pretty good to me. Mine are outdoors and I water every morning, but whenever I leave for a couple of days, they don't get watered and they do fine. Give them lots of water when they're in spike, if you want good flowers. I fertilize my vandas twice a week during the summer. I just use a little hand spray bottle and mist the fertilizer onto the roots. I've never used a high nitrogen fertilizer like the 30-10-10 you mentioned. I use a balanced fertilizer but maybe the high nitrogen will work fine. I don't really know. I always bring my vandas indoors if the temperature is going to go below 50 degrees.

[ALToronto]

In my dry Toronto house, I couldn't keep mine happy bare root. I put it in a cedar slat basket with lava rock, sphagnum and charcoal, and every day I spray the basket until water drips out the bottom. Once a week I soak it for at least 30 min. Always some fertilizer in the spray and soak water.

[silken]

I just got my first Vanda in Feb. It was pretty dehydrated but had viable roots. I started soaking it in a pail every morning for about 1/2 hr. and now the roots have recovered and new ones are growing. There was a new leaf tip when I got it which has already grown several inches and a new leaf is started also. Mine had the tiny net basket and then all the roots below. I put the whole thing in a 8 inch round open plastic net pot with just a bit of bark and sphagnum moss scattered at the bottom and draped over a few roots. I wired the tiny basket on 4 sides to the pot so it doesn't move and shift around. Now I just dunk the entire net pot in the pail for a few mins every few days and then put it where it gets a good amount of sun and moving air. It seems rather happy and has recovered a nicer green colour and new roots growing that don't get disturbed now when I dunk it. I can't always be around to mist it every day so this works for me.... so far