Vanda, should i bother try any longer...? - Page 3 - Orchid Board

beanluc · #21 09-02-2010, 02:19 PM

heh, here I was, all set to give advice... then to see that the thread's a year old except for CTB's bump.

What the heck... someone will find this thread through Search. So here goes

From the photos, I judge that the vanda just wasn't absorbing enough water. Leaves looked wrinkled and dry, instead of thick, full and plump.

So my question to Lene Th. would have been: "I know you're watering it every day, but, *how* are you watering it?" My own typical protocol is to let certain of my orchids *soak* in water for anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes when they look shrunken like this. Give them a chance to drink it up and fill the internal stores.

Especially with Vandaceous orchids: I've found that just wetting the roots by spraying, sprinkling or dipping every day, or even several times a day, does not seem to give the plant a chance to absorb as much as it needs. So the root-soak several times a week has become my fix for a dry-seeming vanda-type.

It also could be that Norway is just way too high of a latitude for an equatorial Vanda. Long, long winter nights and long, long summer days might be too much disruption of its cycles.

I predict that such a plant in such a place can be kept alive and maybe even encouraged to grow at a healthy rate, but that flowering is unlikely, without a fully climate controlled room with artificial lights, heat, humidity and air circulation.

beanluc · #22 09-02-2010, 02:20 PM

PS I do hope that we find out how Lene Th.'s vanda has been doing!

CTB · #23 09-02-2010, 02:29 PM

Me Too!

BobInBonita · #24 09-02-2010, 07:16 PM

Just my 2 cents here, but....
In your picture the vanda is with phals, and the phals have a dark green color.
In general, my vandas grow in light that would fry a phal, and my phals turn dark green when they need more light.
Everybody seems worried about water and fertilizer, but give that baby some sun. Especially in Norway where the sun is always a bit lower than here in Florida.
Wish I could have said this a year ago, but maybe it will help another northern hobbyist. Hope you found a way with this one.

Anisa · #25 09-02-2010, 10:41 PM

If the vase and terrarium didnt work try something different. I would put it in chunks of lava rocks or bark. And keep on sunny window. Apparently it wants to live perhaps change in conditions would five it a bust. BTW i grow my vandas in pots with lava rocks. I have found that it is the best way for me to keep them hydrated - just soak a pot when roots seems dry - usually one per day, maybe twice then it is over 90F.
Good luck with yours. She is not giving up neither should you

BrucherT74 · #26 11-29-2018, 03:43 AM

Just wondering how your Vanda is doing. I grow a few Vandas in water culture in my Chicago windows. I have failed with Vandas in the past, in pots and moss. But in this water culture, in vases, I have 5 that are thriving. It takes consistent work and I mist them pretty much every day; it's winter, so I am not soaking them under water every few days like I do in the summer, but I do mist the roots thoroughly -- until all turn green -- with a spray bottle filled with Reverse Osmosis water every morning. They are almost always white again by nightfall. The Reverse Osmosis water is KEY, I believe; before I started using it, I have never had a happy Vandaceous orchid and eventually if I didn't give them away, they succumbed. Chicago air is either hot and wet in summer or hot and dry, and winter air is either cold and wet or, more often, cold and VERY dry. My apartment is very old and to say it has good natural airflow is putting it mildly.

Anyway, your orchid is clearly trying to live and you are clearly doing everything you can. But those are very, very dehydrated leaves. I just don't think it's absorbing water and one reason could be if you are using normal tap water, it may be too mineralized for the plant. If you can get Reverse Osmosis water, I would try that. I would soak the entire plant for one hour per day, in fresh RO water, every 3 days, and mist with RO water every morning. Those leaves, they cannot handle that degree of dehydration, the wrinkling is a sign that it is just not taking up water.

After a couple weeks of this regimen, i would resume fertilizing soaks at least once a week, with the fertilizer mixed into RO water.

I use 4 other products regularly: 1) is a Cal-Mag fertilizer, a liquid that I dilute per the instructions and spray the roots thoroughly, probably every 6 weeks. 2) is a powdered fertilizer called Epiphyte's Delight, also mixed per instructions and this is misted thoroughly on leaves and roots, about once per month. 3) every other week, I either mist or give a couple-hour soak to the roots in Jack's liquid fertilizer, mixed at 1/4 recommended strength. 4) I use an "organic" Copper Fungicide product a few times a year, which surprises me in its effects; the plants seem to regard it as a fertilizer and I have no black spots anywhere.

I rarely skip a day of misting with plain RO water and when I have to leave for a few days, I fill just enough of their vases to reach the one or two root tips; I have left them for up to 9 days like this and they even grew their roots into the water to reach it as it evaporated.

My largest Vanda came from a massive grab-'em-up orchid sale held by the Chicago Botanic Garden, it's about two feet tall and when I got it, it had roots more than 6 feet long and profuse. Its leaves were wrinkled just like yours and a couple fell off... but I soaked it and soaked it and misted it and misted it and slowly the wrinkles plumped out. It has lost most of the original roots but some new ones have sprouted and it currently is going through a root-and-leaf growth spurt. I cannot emphasize enough how I had to mist and soak this thing and it probably took 4 months to see the final wrinkles disappear. Not sure you should do exactly the same level of aggression but... well, I just see those leaves and I want them to fatten up for you! And your plant clearly has some fight left in it.

Best wishes, hope my experience somehow helps, if you're still at it, and if not, I hope you got a new plant. I took up water culture due to videos by The Orchid Whisperer on YouTube, incorporating most of her methods and adjusting based on what my particular plants seem to be doing.