Vanda in orchitop with growstone and leca
 

Hi all,
Anyone had success potting a vanda in something? I have an orchitop pot but had no luck potting one in it with a growstone/leca bead mixture- the roots rotted because they were always moist... Would lava rock or bark be any better? Does anyone else have experience with vandas in orchitop pots?

Here's a picture of the plant when I potted it. Half of the roots died while potted, I have it in a glass vase now but it's not a great solution I don't think... The plant did surprisingly grow (a new leaf grew about 1") but I was too uncomfortable with so many roots dying to let it stay in the orchitop...

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If it helps, I had been misting the outside of the orchitop 4-5x per week, and soaking it in a half strength fertilizer 1x/week. The plant gets bright full sun in an Eastern window until about 2pm. The humidity is usually between 60-75% in the kitchen where I keep the vanda. It is a pachara delight blue that is not yet flowering size, supposedly next year it should be though.




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I can't address the watering in a pot. I'm growing them in glass vases. You're not fertilizing enough. Vandas need very large amounts of fertilizer to grow well and make roots, if sun and watering are good. Without fertilizer they sit there and do nothing. I have heard in lectures 2 tablespoons / 30ml per gallon / 3.78 liters of 20-20-20 every fifth watering. The sun is probably OK.

I think you answered your own question: your growing conditions and that pot/medium combination apparently don't work for that plant. Why you would mist it when it "stays too wet"?

However, whenever you change the root zone environment (what was it grown in when you got it?), you will lose roots, so the plant will need to grow new ones to compensate, so this may not be entirely your fault...

One more thing: "constantly wet" is not a problem if the roots get plenty of air, and in some cases - phals and many vandas, for example - are kept very warm.

IMO vase culture is one of the best way to grow vandas if you don't want to water it every day and easy to "repot" without damaging roots too much. You also get to see the condition and progress of the roots. Vandas should be watered when the roots are all white, so being able to see the them takes out a lot of the guess work.

I also have vandas potted in net pots with ~50/50 sphagnum moss and large bark mix, and LECA in claypot. I get good growth from these two methods, but not as good as those in vases. In addition, vanda roots tend to grow all over the place (out of the pots) in these two set ups. However, you really need to know how your environment affect the watering frequency for these two. I only water when I know the mediums are completely dry!

These are the guidelines I follow. They are from Dr. Mote's book, many other vanda growers, and my own observations:

- Only water when the roots are white. You can even wait a day to water.

- Temperature variance (~ 60-80 F) encourages root growth, flower production, and overall health of the plant.

- fertilizing every watering with 1/4 the recommended strength is better.

- constant air movement and give as much sun as the plant can handle without burning its leaves.

I hope this helps...

I have mine (various types) in baskets with large lava chunks. They get good watering in summer but are dryer in winter. Roots growing well.

Maureen

Thanks for the input! I've switched all of my vandas (currently have 3) to glass vases, the one that was previously in leca/growstone is doing GREAT! Lots of new root tips from the base of the plant and some new roots branching off old ones. I'll post pictures next time I remember!