Vanda in low humidity

[Raimisx9]

Hello,
I need soke advoce from the gardeners here! I bought this beutiful vanda Nitaya Violet Blue and I have very low humidity at my house, 20-30%.
What you would advice? I have a wooden basket at home and also some sphagnum moss and coconut fibre. Maybe it will be better for her to be in a basket with some loosly packed coconut fibre around the roots?
Any help and advice will be appreciated!

[estación seca]

How is it potted now, or is it bare root?

Do you have other plants? If you group all your plants together the relative humidity will be higher among the plants.

You can grow it in a pot with large chunks of material. You can grow it in a basket with very loose coconut fiber chunks, but I would not use sphagnum moss nor a mass of loose coconut fiber around Vanda roots.

If you look at the current thread started by member early about Vandas you might learn more. It is called "Help, four mature Vandas arrive from Motts." The difference is you are much farther north and the light is not as strong as in New Mexico.

[Dollythehun]

I shudder to say this: Miss Orchid girl just did a video for Carter and Holmes about low humidity plants. Vandas were included. It might be worth a Google.

[Keysguy]

With humidity that low, it might be a candidate to stick it in a vase of water and leave it there.
I'll let others that have actually grown that way chime in with their thoughts.

[estación seca]

Vanda roots don't survive constant submersion unless new roots grow down into the water of their own volition. I have found there aren't any problems with soaks up to 24 hours, so long as temperatures are reasonable for Vandas.

[Raimisx9]

Hello, thank you all for the answers! I will check both the thread and Miss Orchid Girl video about it.
It is now bare root, but I will put it in a large wooden basket to preserve aome moisture around the roots as the wood will soak some water and then roots can access it from wood

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

With humidity that low, it might be a candidate to stick it in a vase of water and leave it there.
I'll let others that have actually grown that way chime in with their thoughts.

While vase culture is a rather common way to grow Vandas here (and some OB members use it with success) it doesn't actually involve leaving the plant sit in water.



The idea behind vase culture is to set the plant in a very large vase, at least as deep as the roots. The plant is watered daily or every couple of days or even weekly (depending on season and local humidity) by filling the vase with water (enough to cover the roots), letting it soak a bit, then dumping out the water. The enclosed environment provided by the vase prevents the roots from dying out too quickly.

Here are a couple threads about the technique:

Vandas in Glass Vases
NoID Vanda vase culture. Need help with keeping it alive.

Some photos of vase grown plants by our member jcec1:
Vanda Hsinying Starlight
Vanda Motes Hot Mama
Vanda Kiwi Bob

[jcec1]

I grow all my Vandas in glass vases, humidity in the house is about 40%.

I've not had a failure growing them this way, I water them twice a week all year long and spritz the roots the other days in summer as well as watering.

Feeding is done every two weeks in summer. When it's hot (above 25C here, not that often) I leave about 1cm of water in the vase which has usually evaporated by the following day.

"Repotting" is also very easy, just get a bigger vase and put it in

With a vase you can easily modulate conditions as you can see what is going on and there is no media that can stay wet, it may be that in your warmer conditions you would have to water more frequently.

[Orchidtinkerer]

good to have someone actually growing them chime in too jcec