Vanda orchid care: getting a spike

[Ray]

Think "mass of fertilizer applied" like you do calories, and the eating process:

➡️ Small, frequent meals, versus few, large ones. Both can provide the necessary total mass of nutrients.
➡️ Taking small bites over the course of hours versus trying to jam an entire plateful of food in your mouth at once. Your environment dictates how acceptable the latter is - Martin Mote's environment allowed the solution to be absorbed before the water evaporated, bil's doesn't.

[MattWoelfsen]

What works for Estacion and Bil is important to remember when getting or giving advice. That is why I always state where I live: Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I grew up eating three square meals a day. Like Ray said, I have learned to eat less at meal times and have something to eat between meals, because I am diabetic.

I have found that my success lies in feeding my bareroot Vanda more often with a lower dosage. It is finally summer here, so I water in the morning until roots are deep green, then in the evening I water again with 1/4 dosage of fertilizer per gallon.

During the Winter I have the Vanda growing under bright LED lights for 10 hours a day. The leaves are a light green color. When I put them outside, they get very bright light and develop a reddish undertone to the green leaves--anthocyanin. When they get this coloration, I know that is enough light.

Since I live in a Winter geography, and I grow inside my house, during the Winter, I buy Vanda that are tolerant of cooler overnight temperatures such as (I'm using the old nomenclature): Neofinetia falcata, Vanda coerulea, Vanda coerulescens. I think Robert's Delight, has one of the more cool tolerant ancestors.

[bil]

I'm in a fairly hot place, but even so, the humidity is usually 50% give or take a bit.

I shroud the roots with a curtain of Spanish moss, and during the day it gets 8 shoots of RO water from the misting system. If I manage to get in the greenhouse before the misting cycle starts, I give it a couple of sprays with weak fertiliser. At the end of the day after the cycles have finished, I give it some more weak fertiliser.

The Spanish moss keeps the roots moist all day, and the root growth is sensational at the moment.

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