Vanda questions

[Paul Mc]

As a noob to Vanda's, I'm sure my two or alright, but I wanted to get everyone elses thoughts.

My Pachara Delight came with a lot of dead looking roots in a plastic basket. I did not cut the roots and I have been watering 1 to 3 times daily depending upon how hot it has been. Fertilizing by dunking in sink once a week. I'm seeing one of the bottom leaves starting to mottle with yellow and a few of the upper leaves are turning away from the light source and folding up a bit. Your thoughts?

My coereulla (sp?) came in coconut husk fiber in a plastic pot. It's roots were not very good at all, as in very minimal root system. So, I transferred it to a wooden basket and kept it in the coconut husk fiber. Same watering and fertilizing regimen. Two of the lower leafs have dried leaf tips, but there has been tremendous root growth in comparison to what it had. Your thoughts on this one again?

I should add that the coeruella does not appear to have ever bloomed before, but the Pachara has the dead stumps of previous blooms. Neither appear to be in spike at the moment.

[Wrebbitrocks]

hey, nice to hear your progress im gonna just lurk here and see if any answers will help me too. my roots arent doing much but shrivelling, but the plant is still plump and more rigid than before and its growing a new leaf fast (pachara delight)

I am another newb with vandas (less than a year) although I have managed to rase my vandaceous collection to about 15 mixed hybrids and species mature and seedlings. I grow them indoors around south-east windows with no additional light, we keep thermostat around 21-22 celsium year round. Here are my observations:
vandas are the toughest orchids I ever had, even rootless cutting will produce new roots and survive;
they need several hours of direct sun to initiate spike;
mature and seedlings do great in glass vases soaked once a day and produce great roots, at the beginning I was soaking them twice a day, morning and afternoon, for 15 minutes, but now I got lazy and do it just once for longer time(half hour to an hour) after work with the same effect;
several small seedlings I keep in the plastic vanda baskets with a handful of coconut husk chips, basket sits inside of square clear plastic pot, those get watered every second day and show great root growth too;
I got Vanda coerulea in July and it got overheated, lots of leaves had ugly yellow patches and some started to get brown. I couldn't stand the look of it and peeled all those leaves off (quite harsh treatment) uncovering fresh green stem and now almost each leaf node produces new root;
they are quite tolerant to root trimmings and will produce new fresh green roots in no time;
I fertilize irregularly, less than once every two weeks;
they take water from the sink, but I make sure it is lukewarm;
even though they like sun, the small seedlings have to be introduced to sun gradually, otherwise they will burn
(I burned to death small Vanda liouvillei seedling in one day and am still crying about it,Clouds doesn't have them anymore);
mature vandas and adapted(is this the correct word for those wo was introduced to sun gradually?) seedlings are fine with direct sun on my window from the sunrise until around 1 pm without any protection.
key with them is water, sun and warmth;
sorry for the long post

[Paul Mc]

No need to be sorry about the long post - I want to hear this stuff.

Mine are in the basement since both have the cooler growing coerulea parentage. They are under T8's that produce a 6500 color temp at 2750 lumens I believe it was. They are literally right under the light fixture (maybe about 9 inches from the source). The lights remain on for about 12 or so hours a day.

I really soak them only once in the sink, with fertilizer, but it's more around 2 minutes or so. Otherwise, I just spray them with the water hose in the basement (it's a make shift greenhouse with water facet and hose in it - concrete floors).

I'm just glad it seems like I'm doing the right thing for them. I'm just shocked that the one has not bloomed or set spikes as it obviously has in the past and this is supposed to be the time of year for it to bloom.

I do think the discoloration and leaf tip's dying were from the last round of extremely excessive heat though, but just wanted to know what others thought.

I've been considering vase culture, but I have no where to place the vases so they get the adequate light they need at this time.

Paul, sounds like you have very convenient setup. Definitely moere handy that runnng around with vases .
What temperature do you keep in your basement?

[Paul Mc]

It's hard to say, but it seems to be consistently around 60 degrees in the winter and a bit higher during the summer months. I think when we've hard freezes that have lasted a while I've seen the temperature go to about 55, but I'm not 100% sure about that. It's where I keep my 80 some odd tropicals other than orchids, lol...

What I understood about blue vandas(and it could be totally wrong), for successful flowering they require colder temps (55-60 F) at night, but during the day they would still like it about 10 degrees higher.
Since mine are on the window, I hope to achieve this by getting colder air from the glass at night when there is no sun and temps are colder outside, but warmer from the sun shining during the day.
I would like to hear expert's opinion about this though.

[tucker85]

I grow outdoors in south Florida so my experience may not be of much use to you. Most of the vandas I've bought had some dead roots on them like you described. Some had a lot of dead roots. If they're unsightly I cut them off but usually I just leave them. The one bottom leaf turning yellow is very normal for a vanda getting used to a new environment. I often lose a leaf or two when I first get plants. I don't know what causes the leaves to turn away from your lights. It's probably not an issue though.

I just remembered that Vanda_lover on this board grows Vanda Pachara (or was it Patchara?)Delight indoors and it flowers for her regularly. Hope she will come across this thread and gives her opinion on the blooming of your vanda.

[pedidiva]

I'm a noob to the Vandas, too. I live where it is semi-arid.

I have the some of the Vandas in Vases--pachara seedlings, a vandiera, Vanda sansai raspberry, & a thailand something or other in vases. They sit in a sunny window--SW facing. I soak daily for an hour or so. Sometimes overnight. I have recently started adding seaweed extract & fertilizer after reading the threads.

When I received the sansai, it was pretty dehydrated. Some of the roots were "woody-looking", but greened up. Some of the leaves were pretty wrinkled looking, some still are. The new leaves are smooth.

I have an aerangis fatuso X citrata, & an neofinetia in small pots in the window as well. At some point, I'm going to transfer the neofinetia to a vase at some point.

Pedi