Just to be fair here:
I have placed an order of 4 vandacous seedlings last March/April from this vendor. All of them arrived bare root, measuring 4-5 in leaf span and 3-4 in tall. The roots appeared to be shrivelled and dried! Leaves appeared to be firm and green.
As of now, 3 out of those 4 seedling each gave out several plump roots (about 3-4 in long). The other 1 died soon ( which is my fault since I removed it from the "hydration chamber" too soon.
When ordering from this vendor, you must realize that the plants will be small and will arrive bareroot. Here is what I did to re-vitalize them:
Upon receiving them, I trimmed off ALL shriveled roots and soaked them in mixture of water, Superthrive, and Physan 20 ( mix 1 gallon of distilled H20, 10 drops of Superthrive, 3/4 - 1 tsp of Physan ) for about 30 min. I then wrapped them up in a damp paper towel ( make sure to leave plenty of space between the plant stem and paper towel ).
I leave these on my kitchen counter, and sprayed the stem with the mixture above everyday. Paper towel MUST remain damp ALL time. Change the paper towel every 3-4 days to prevent molds.
After a couple of weeks, new green root tips will emerge ( Of course, these seedlings lost a few leaves ). I then moved them to a VASE glass filled with a little bit of water on the bottom, while the plantlets are suspended 1-2 in above the water. I misted them almost everyday.
As of today, these seedlings have more roots than leaves, so I moved them to a 2in terra cotta pots with nothing in it. I sprayed the pot along with the roots on a daily basis, fertilize every week. I stopped the fertilization in winter and will slowly pick up the fertilization cycle again when spring hits the area.
Oh, and I raised ALL my orchids indoor since the winter temp in our area ( Oklahoma City ) often dip into the 20s and 30s, while summer temp will hit 100s for days.
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