Couldn't find the thread about growing sideways.....

[james mickelso]

Someone wrote a thread about their orchid growing sideways but I can't find it. Here's a couple growing that way and a couple that were corrected. Some are just stubborn.

[HighSeas]

That would have been my question! Your picture #1 looks just like a Catt I have growing all sideways and psychotic! Where did you get those heavy metal tags? Hmmmmm......

[Silje]

I've got a couple of dendrobiums that are doing this. All new growths grow straight out to the sides. It wouldn't be such a big deal if I had lots of space, but they take up so much room with growths in all directions like that. I will try to coax them to grow upwards for that reason. They also become so vulnerable and easy to damage when they're like this and encroaching into other plants' territories and get entangled and...all sorts of nonsense.

Regarding growing sideways...I've got vanda roots that are doing this nowadays as well. It's also a bit of a headache. Whatever was wrong about hanging down like all the other roots? And again, I'm mostly just worried about breaking them when moving around in the greenhouse. Some are close to 30 cm long now, and it's starting to get very....impractical.

[Discus]

Slike - Given time, most plants can be "trained" - when my vanda roots get too long, they get wound up and around the plant, taking care not to "snap" them (they're similar in tensile strength to phalaenopsis roots). I haven't yet worked out if they're more pliable when wet or dry, but I generally try to do such manipulations when it's warm. My vanda therefore has a (somewhat tangled) root "ball" rather than tons of roots everywhere. Probably more resilient to damage that way, but TBH things mostly tend to stay put once they find a home.

I often train wayward roots on mounted plants with "twisty ties" (that plastic coated thin wire in the flat strips); once they're in place and naturally stick where I want them, the twisty ties are removed. This can be quite a process with slow growing plants with un-bendy roots, like the smaller angraecoids. It's kind of like orchid bonsai.

---------- Post added at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 PM ----------

Oh, incidentally, most desktop PC expansion slot covers would work very nicely like the metal tag in those pictures. Take the side off your tower and steal a couple.

[james mickelso]

I get mine at a industrial supply house called Graingers. They are on the net. They are aluminum with some sort of puffy paper inside and you write on them with a pen or even a nail. They are used as tags in industrial settings for identifying valves and such. Very durable.