Need your opinion on Vandas

[shari99]

Hi everyone,

I just purchased two new vandas. I noticed that the baskets are deteriorating and I am wondering if I should put them in new baskets or should I tie them on a wooden stake.

(I have one other vanda which was a cutting and I attached it on a wooden stake outside and it is growing nicely even though it has not bloomed since.) Which should I use the stake or the wooden basket?

Also should I 'repot' it now or after the flowers die?

Tanya

[beanluc]

Hello, Tanya,

Vandas really do not do well if their roots are disturbed. Whatever you do, don't try to remove the old baskets! You'll just wreck a lot of healthy roots and set the plants back three years.

As long as the hangers will still hold the plants up, you can leave them as they are.

If the plants get very very large in a few years, you could just cut off the old hanger wires and drop everything inside of a bigger new basket - roots, old basket and all.

For now, there doesn't appear to be a reason to do anything with these except to hang them up! If the old baskets really are just falling apart so badly that the hanger wires aren't working well anymore, then the thing to do would be as above - get a new basket big enough to hold everything, and put the old basket and all the roots inside it. Soak the roots in a bucket first so that they will be flexible enough to put in the new basket without breaking from stiffness.

Good luck,
BL

[alan3885]

Hello,

I just recently purchased a baby Violet Vanda orchid (in the bag) from Home Depot and its growing inside my home like all my orchids however I bought the orchid potting mix and it seems to be doing fine and its on the south window in Allen, TX (Zone 8a) and the roots love to go wild. I water it about once a week.

[jsauger]

Originally Posted by beanluc

Hello, Tanya,

As long as the hangers will still hold the plants up, you can leave them as they are.

BL

Hi Tanya,

I agree with BL. I too have some very old Vandas and Ascocendas which were bull plants from a grower. The baskets are even more deteriorated than what you have in your pics—one is barely more than root mass wrapped around the metal bits left from the baskets. But the plants are safe and healthy so I leave them alone.

I also noticed in one of the pics your wooden basket has the original plastic basket still nestled down inside the wooden basket. What I would do is to attach the hangers, if you can, to the plastic basket still in there. The wood will continue to break down but plastic is pretty much forever.

BTW, congrats on the additions. The pink Vanda is especially beautiful.

[shari99]

I just wanted to say thanks to every one. I had no idea that vandas don't like to be disturbed. I have to research vandas, now that they are in my collection. They were so lovely I could not refuse buying them. I will leave them as suggested and just enjoy them.

Thanks,
Tanya