Feeding Potless Vanda

[K-Sci]

Thank you estación seca and Ben in Florida!

Okay, after upping my fertilizer from 1/4 tsp every other week to 1/4 tsp ever other day, my Vanda (pictured with copious roots earlier in this thread, boomed. What's remarkable (to me at least), is that it just finished blooming last month. It has never bloomed twice in a season before. Here's a picture of my reward, though it isn't really quite as blue as the picture (on my screen).

K-Sci

[Clawhammer]

Originally Posted by Ben_in_North_FLA

"What led you to this conclusion?
K-Sci"
actual growing experience....'I built a 12x18 ft
shadehouse strictly for vandas and a few mounted cattleya alliance plants. plants were hanging on pipes at 8ft above ground. Used 50 percent shade cloth and was covered with clear 6 mil poly. I controlled watering with overhead misting system (on twice each morning 15 minutes each cycles)and dosmatic fertlizer injector all controlled by a battery timer and shade house was pretty much on autopilot, except for fertilization once a week.
I got tremendous growth on all vandas with 3 ft plus of uninterrupted full size foliage and roots that extended to 4-5 feet below first leaf and many plants had to have the rootball coiled up like a hose to keep them off the ground. initially all plants were on baskets but they wound up with roots interlocking each other and I had to literally use a machete to separate the plants and then removed the baskets and just hung them with a wire hook.
When fed at 1 tsp rate they grew normal and hardly bloomed, bumped up 1 TBSP and things changed substantially, more blooms.

My growing experience says different. I fertilize (mostly) every watering with a very low ppm fert solution and my three vandas are almost constantly in bloom. Two of them recently just put a second spike out of the same node they are so happy.

I am not doubting your experience, I just caution any grower in making such definitive statements about what one HAS to do in order to get blooms. I mean, obviously vandas don't get a tbsp / gallon in nature...

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[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by Clawhammer

My growing experience says different.
I just caution any grower in making such definitive statements about what one HAS to do in order to get blooms. I mean, obviously vandas don't get a tbsp / gallon in nature...

Good advice. By this same reasoning I chose to fertilize at 1/4 tsp/gal rather than jump to 1 Tbs/gallon more often, an increase of 3.5 times.



I recently bought a TDS meter on Amazon that tests accurate in a reference solution and will find out what the PPM is next time I water (if I remember).

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

Originally Posted by Clawhammer

My growing experience says different. I fertilize (mostly) every watering with a very low ppm fert solution and my three vandas are almost constantly in bloom. Two of them recently just put a second spike out of the same node they are so happy.

I am not doubting your experience, I just caution any grower in making such definitive statements about what one HAS to do in order to get blooms. I mean, obviously vandas don't get a tbsp / gallon in nature...

I am just relating my results growing hundreds of vandas , ascocendas, ascocentrum, aerides, and various vandaceous hybrids and also the culture details provided by RF orchids and Motes orchids as well.
Not all my orchids are heavy feeders and the rest usually get 1 TSP per gallon dilution.
Obviously no one should change their culture at another grower's suggestion without trying a test plant first and confirming results. At some of my orchid culture presentations I expand that aspect substantially.

I have never tried the weakly/weekly method or weak feeding at every watering as I want my plants to enjoy the clean water rinse several time between feedings to avoid root burn. My vanda shadehouse was covered and protected from rain.

Sounds like you're satisfied with the three vanda sample that you mentioned.

Next time that you are attending any Major orchid show that RF orchids attends, pls take a good look at their plants display and inquire about their vanda feeding. Always good to have useful information from one of the world's premier growers.

[Shadeflower]

one should always try different methods, especially when giving advice comparing two methods online.
Otherwise it's like comparing pizza to pasta, if one has only tried pizza, no doubt one likes it but one cannot conclude it is better than pasta without at least trying pasta.

There is nothing wrong with only eating pizza but then one shouldn't insist pizza is the best food in the world is my philosophy.

The fact that vanda's need to be flushed not just once to ensure they don't get burnt with motes method is to me a red flag. I honestly do not think they do it because it is the best thing to do BUT because it is the easiest to do for their circumstances. The reason I say this is because motes will have had a huge outdoor collection. Fertilizing each plant every watering would be a lot of effort. Getting the watering hose out every 4 out of 5 waterings is far far easier.

So... logically he will advocate what he was doing for decades already. That's fine. He was a very experienced grower, had thousands of plants. But feeding 1/4 the amount over 4 waterings works out roughly the same in fertilizer the plant is receiving - just in a much gentler dose that doesn't burn the roots or require lots of flushing.

So there is both arguments to the story. IF you are an outdoor hose gardener, you will want to do high strnegth on less occasions but if you have a small indoor collection to me it makes sense to make a bucket of fertilized water and use that for a couple of weeks.

The only argument against it could be storing ready made fertilized water but that needs to be done otherwise it is more effort than it is worth making a fresh batch every watering.

I try to use any water within 2 weeks of making it and so far haven't seen any drawbacks but I only use a minimal amount of seaweed extract, my only "organic" fertilizer so with organic fertilizers it might be easier to fertilize less often which can be done as seen by the Motes method

[Clawhammer]

Originally Posted by Ben_in_North_FLA

Sounds like you're satisfied with the three vanda sample that you mentioned.

Definitely a big enough sample for me to know that 1 tbsp / gallon is not a requirement for a great bloom considering they are all blooming profusely right now and 2 of them are blooming a second time from the same node.

I think the risk of burn is much greater using a tbsp / gallon and flush vs a constant 25ppm of N.

[Roberta]

The whole growing environment needs to be factored in when comparing methods... Motes is growing in hot, humid south Florida, in an open area with thousands of plants - applying both water and fertilizer in large volumes. That's really different than growing in an enclosed area under lights, watering (and fertilizing) in a somewhat controlled manner to avoid making a mess. (I don't think that the "firehose" approach works in a basement growing area). So if a technique works, the orchids grow and bloom, it's appropriate for the environment. There's no "right or wrong" here... just different circumstances.

[estación seca]

A point to remember is that Vandas do best with a lot more fertilizer than is necessary for most other orchids.

[Shadeflower]

I just checked out a grower that taught me much of what I know about Vanda's

She has brought out lots of new video's.

This one is great, she mentions the Vanda in the video drinks 50 liters of water per year!

That was one bit of information I was lacking with my previous answer but wow, 50 liters! The plant is a beast though. Well worth checking out:

Vanda Watering - Maximum Results With Minimum Effort For Home Growers - YouTube

[Roberta]

A little trick that I have tried on a Vanda dennisoniana that seemed to be needing more of "something" than it was getting, and I have seen great root growth and general improvement in plant strength... I made a little "bundle" of time-release fertilizer tied up in a piece of panty hose. I hung it on the stem above the roots. When the plant is watered (I do water from overhead) the idea is that with each watering, a dribble of fertilizer washes down to the roots. This serves as a supplement to the "normal" liquid fertilizer that I give to everything, but really not enough for a Vanda. Seems to be having a positive effect.