Vanda culture

[Raymond]

Wow, that is astounding. I am definitely going to give the full water culture method a go

[fishmom]

Sure, here it is. It is a 6 inch pot, I use Orchiata Power + bark (12-18 mm) with some perlite and charcoal added, and I water a couple of times a week, more or less depending on temperatures. It is outside right now, and looks pretty yellow-green from the high light. You can see a new root in the last picture, diving into the bark.

I keep it in a larger clay pot for stability, and I'm sure it would dry out more quickly if I didn't do that.

[Raymond]

Thank you so much.

[estación seca]

Timely; this topic came up in our orchid society meeting last night.

If Vandas are briefly too dry, the leaves wrinkle. If kept too dry, roots die. Roots will not regrow until proper watering resumes.

I live in a much hotter, less humid place than do Cheddarbob14 and jcec1. I began growing Vanda seedlings (not big enough to flower) in glass vases after reading jcec1's previous thread. In the intervening 2 years I have realized that, during warm weather, I have to fill the vases and let them soak on a 24 hour soak / 24 hour dry schedule. Anything less and the leaves and roots begin to shrivel. I no longer spray the roots with water; it isn't enough in my climate.

I am not giving them enough light for flowering now in the hot season, because then they would need even more water. They are too small to flower so that is not an issue.

During the winter I only need to soak for 6 hours or so, every 3-4 days.

I have blooming-sized Vandas in a sunroom where I run an evaporative cooler in summer. That room is around 27C / 80 F most of the summer, often cooler than my house when I am not home, and the humidity is much higher than in my house. Those plants do fine with an overnight soak every 3-4 days. They did lose a lot of roots shortly after arrival, but grew new ones quickly.

I also treat the roots with KelpMax. I seem to recall the US vendor writing KelpMax originates in your country, but under a different name. It is sold in the US by First Ray's, and you can read about it on that Web site. After an overnight soak in a solution of KelpMax, I always see new root nubs on Vanda roots that were not there the night before.

Fertilizer is important, as well. Without adequate fertilizer, Vandas hardly grow at all, roots nor leaves. Vandas require much more fertilizer than most other kinds of orchids. A grower in south Florida, Martin Motes, of Motes Orchids, writes that a properly fertilized Vanda should have a 1 centimeter band of pale green tissue at the bases of emerging leaves. He and Bob Fuchs, of RF Orchids, also in south Florida, write and say they water every Vanda every morning, and twice on hot days. They fertilize every 5th watering, using 30 ml / 2 tablespoons of 20-20-20 fertilizer per gallon / 3.78 liters of water. I have taken to using 5ml fertilizer powder per 3.78 liters of water for each soaking. I give my plants one soak per month in rain with KelpMax and no fertilizer.

[nogreenthumbs]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Timely; this topic came up in our orchid society meeting last night.

If Vandas are briefly too dry, the leaves wrinkle. If kept too dry, roots die. Roots will not regrow until proper watering resumes.

I live in a much hotter, less humid place than do Cheddarbob14 and jcec1. I began growing Vanda seedlings (not big enough to flower) in glass vases after reading jcec1's previous thread. In the intervening 2 years I have realized that, during warm weather, I have to fill the vases and let them soak on a 24 hour soak / 24 hour dry schedule. Anything less and the leaves and roots begin to shrivel. I no longer spray the roots with water; it isn't enough in my climate.

I am not giving them enough light for flowering now in the hot season, because then they would need even more water. They are too small to flower so that is not an issue.

During the winter I only need to soak for 6 hours or so, every 3-4 days.

I have blooming-sized Vandas in a sunroom where I run an evaporative cooler in summer. That room is around 27C / 80 F most of the summer, often cooler than my house when I am not home, and the humidity is much higher than in my house. Those plants do fine with an overnight soak every 3-4 days. They did lose a lot of roots shortly after arrival, but grew new ones quickly.

I also treat the roots with KelpMax. I seem to recall the US vendor writing KelpMax originates in your country, but under a different name. It is sold in the US by First Ray's, and you can read about it on that Web site. After an overnight soak in a solution of KelpMax, I always see new root nubs on Vanda roots that were not there the night before.

Fertilizer is important, as well. Without adequate fertilizer, Vandas hardly grow at all, roots nor leaves. Vandas require much more fertilizer than most other kinds of orchids. A grower in south Florida, Martin Motes, of Motes Orchids, writes that a properly fertilized Vanda should have a 1 centimeter band of pale green tissue at the bases of emerging leaves. He and Bob Fuchs, of RF Orchids, also in south Florida, write and say they water every Vanda every morning, and twice on hot days. They fertilize every 5th watering, using 30 ml / 2 tablespoons of 20-20-20 fertilizer per gallon / 3.78 liters of water. I have taken to using 5ml fertilizer powder per 3.78 liters of water for each soaking. I give my plants one soak per month in rain with KelpMax and no fertilizer.

Wow, impressively thorough post, ES!

[Raymond]

My climate generally reaches between 28 - 32 degrees Celsius. I'm going to try your method ES. Just confirm, water every second day, and leave other days dry (for summer)?

[estación seca]

What is the relative humidity in your growing space? That makes a lot of difference.

I don't go by the calendar. I watch my plants. Their water use varies with the temperature. Your temperatures are a little lower than mine, so perhaps start with a 6 hour soak every other day.

That may be enough time soaking for you. But, at the first sign of fine leaf wrinkles, or roots that don't have vibrant green tips, increase water exposure time - either length or frequency. With a job I found it easiest to soak them overnight, and get up 15 minutes earlier to empty them. Now that it's warmer I soak them for 24 hours, from after I get home from work one day until after I get home from work the next.

It may take over a week of good soaking to expand fine wrinkles and stimulate new root formation. Don't give up. Deep wrinkles won't go away, but new leaves will emerge without wrinkles.

An I must re-emphasize fertilizer is necessary for Vandas growing in vases. They grow neither leaves nor roots without regular fertilizer. I found it easiest to use fertilizer solution for every soak, and rinse once a month. I keep mixed solution in plastic milk jugs so I don't have to pause and mix it when I need it. You may not need to fertilize as heavily as I do - or you may need more. Use the sign Martin Motes mentioned, the 1cm pale green new tissue band.

I should also add that many people are successful leaving the bottoms of some Vanda roots in the water in the vases. This didn't work for me in the past, with seedlings that had just arrived, but many other people do this. I may try it again now that my plants have roots accustomed to long soaks.

Good growers pay attention to the plants. They may not be able to write what they see and understand, but they understand it. This experience comes from time spent doing it. I knew absolutely nothing about Vandas until I decided to try them about 2 years ago. I have been growing many other plants for a long time, though. I hope to show some flowers next spring, or the one after. I started almost exclusively with seedlings.

You will see the many good growers here, before answering your questions, ask about your growing environment. Once you understand a plant you can run mental Monte Carlo simulations and forecast how it might grow in different conditions, and simple ways to improve things in those conditions.

This is the main benefit of Orchid Board. There is a huge amount of practical information in the old threads, and in the heads of people posting here now. We have engineers who can teach you how to assemble the most efficient lighting, and chemists who are almost never wrong!

When I was a teenager stumbling to learn growing orchids in the 1970s there was almost no useful growing information available, and I didn't know orchid societies existed. Plus, my parents probably wouldn't have driven me to meetings.

[Raymond]

Humidity can be anything from 20 to 47 percent in winter and anywhere from 50 to 98 in summer. It all depends on our rains. We don't have continuous summer rain, but rather massive thunder showers at intervals when it rains heavily for a few days and then there is a period of dry heat that is usually 27 to 32 degrees Celsius with the occasional 35. Winters are dry and moderate with day time temperatures being about 20 degrees Celsius and night time being anywhere from -4 to 10. Usually the extremely cold night temperatures occurs for about 4 or five days, twice each year.

[estación seca]

Our winters have similar temperatures. You are 5-15C cooler in summer and more humid. We get 60% of our 200mm average rain in summer thunderstorms; the rest falls as gentle, cool winter rain, much like in the southwest of your country.

Your chief challenge will be learning how much to water.

[Raymond]

I think for starters I will begin giving a soaking whenever the roots go white. Doing that, in time I should learn how much water the particular plants I get would like.