What to medium to put in Vanda basket

[Jalizar]

Hi Sarah,

are your little vandas put in a little plastic basket already (when you bought them)? Or how do you grow it now? Naked?
I had two suggestions for another way to grow vandas inside:
First, you could use cork from wine bottles instead of bark, if you just want something to stabilize the plants a bit. Cut it smaller for small plants.
Second, put the plants into a glass vase (only the roots, leaves should look out of the vase). If you need to water them, simply fill the vase with water, leave them a while and then pour it out again. This will keep the air a bit more moist around the roots without having the danger of them being too wet like if you put them in sphag. Watering every second day or so might even be enough, depends on the conditions in your rooms.

Good luck for your seedlings though!

Uli

[caseydoll]

Thank you Uli! Those are some great ideas! They're actually bare right now since I wanted to wait until my order of baskets came in. It just arrived yesterday so I'm ready to do something with them now. The cork idea is really cool too! And I'm sure the vase idea would actually look very nice. Now I have more ideas to think about....

Sarah

[DasEmpress]

I, too, have had this question on my mind. I just purchased a vanda (came bareroot), and as I didn't have any baskets, I potted it. I just purchased a basket for it today, & was recommended to put it in 'naked', and wasn't sure how to affix it...it's fairly large...

[Charles]

I use wire around the hanging wires. It makes a cradle. If the panlt is too short for that, go from one side of the basket to the base of the vanda, wrap it around the stem (not too tight, but snug) and then attach the wire end to the other side of the basket.
Look at any telephone pole with guy wires and you will understand.
I like to use sphag in the bottom of the basket for really young or vulnerable plants. The roots will likely grow out of the sides, but some will find the sphag and provide much needed moisture. (This has been debated here, but when some plants grow roots into the sphag and like it, I believe it is working.) Just do not overwhelm the plant with sphag, simply make it a part of the equation.

[DasEmpress]

Thanks, Charles...sounds great!!

[Ray]

Be very careful of cut-up corks!

Microorganisms just love cork, and while it may look stable, it can turn to mush almost overnight.

About 20 years ago or so, ground cork was touted as the new wonder medium - cheap, uniform, holds water well, etc., but about a year later, some folks almost lost their whole collections to root rot.