Help with new sad looking Vanda

[Amcstay]

I just bought this Vanda today at my grocery store. It was two dollars, so I thought I couldn’t lose. It’s roots while green, are very shriveled. The leaves look a little wrinkled around the base where they connect to the plant. There are two or three nice big healthy looking roots. It had no bass just the basket that it came in. I have never grown a Vander, so I am very new to this. Do you think there is any hope for this plant? What should I do to try to make it healthy?

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

I think your Vanda can survive and grow.

Vandas require very much more water, light and fertilizer than most other orchids. You will need to get the roots completely soaking wet at least once per day.

They like sun shining on the leaves for at least 3-4 hours a day, but there must also be good air circulation, or the leaves may burn from heat buildup.

You won't need to fertilize while your plants is recovering. Once the leaves plump up, though, you will want to fertilize enough that there is a 1 centimeter wide, very pale green band of emerging tissue at the bases of the most recently emerging leaves.

You will read Vandas need high humidity. Many of us have found they do fine inside typical houses, with 30%-40% relative humidity, if watered enough.

Many people grow them in pots with large-chunk bark, or clay hydroponics balls. Others grow them in baskets, no media, with roots dangling in the air. Still others grow them in glass vases, sometimes with a little water in the bottom all the time.

Use the Search function in the top maroon bar to look up a thread Growing Vandas in Glass Vases. You can read a lot there.

[Amcstay]

Thank you for the information! I had wanted to grow it in a Talavera wall pot. If I put bark in it do you think it would be ok. Or do I want to wait to pot it until the roots plump up?

[estación seca]

You can grow it in a pot like that in bark. The roots might cook if sun hits the pot. Some people pot the plant in another container that fits into the decorative container, and fill the space between pots with foam peanuts. This keeps the inner pot cooler.