New to Vandas- Acclimating to outdoor growing?
 

Hello!

This is my first post on the boards. I've been lurking around and seeing all these lovely posts about growing orchids outdoors, and since I live in 9a, I thought I'd give it a whirl with a vanda since the heat and humidity in Houston (9a) seem pretty ideal up until our 4 weeks of winter. I bought a cheap vanda at Lowe's to avoid heartbreak if I kill it. It's labeled as a Gloria Blue from Better-Gro.

So I really have 2 questions. First, most instructions I've seen say to acclimate your orchid to brighter light outside, but there's not a lot of details on how to do that. I assume you start in a spot in the yard that's 100% shade or perhaps only morning light and move to a more dappled area, but if anyone has a more scientific way of doing it, I would appreciate it!

Second, I've ordered a wooden basket for him, but in the meantime, I realized that a terrible faux kokedama I had bought last year came with this hanging basket-type framework.

I don't think I can post photos yet, or put a link in here, it seems, but I'd like to just describe my setup. Any tips are welcome. I took longer pieces of bark and wedged them into the wires to make a seat for it at the bottom of the basket and gave it a little cushion of moss. The basket wires are pretty far apart, but not so far that he'd fall through if it got really windy, but it seems a bit precarious to put outside as it is. A photo is in my gallery, if people are able to access that.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, that's how you acclimate them.

You can take a wire coathanger, unfold it, cut it if you want, and bend one end into a hook to put around the upper part of your Vanda stem. Use the hanging hook to hang from a tree. Or you can buy a piece of wire to make something like this.

They need watering every day it doesn't rain.

Thanks for the tips!

You do not need to start them in 100% shade. Mottled light/shade for 8-10 days will do it.

If you take it to full sun thereafter, then daily watering is required. If you can sprinkle** it a couple of times a day, even better.

The time to take Vandas outside is once night time temps consistently reach 55F.

** I have rigged a portable garden sprinkler, with an electronic time on hose. It comes on every 6 hours for a few minutes.