Vandas in a Bucket

[Ocelaris]

I place the vandas in 5 and 3 gallon buckets daily, but never kept them there longer than an hour... My $.02 is that they will probably not get enough air and rot... but I have heard that "new roots" develop to their surroundings and can be fairly adaptable, though I suspect since they have such a large vellum, that vandas will not be able to get enough gaseous transfer across that sponge.

With that said, the thing that some people in hydroponics do is to aerate the water with a air pump, or even a small fountain pump... but these are terrestrial modern root systems which have vastly different requirements than our beloved neanderthalish orchid root system... or at least that was my understanding of the lack of evolution in the orchid root system...

[AaronM]

I think I'll give it a try. I know I have at least one good aquarium aerator that I can use if the need arises.
Worse case scenario, I have to trim off a few bad roots from a pretty sizable mass.

Thanks all.

AaronM

[Ocelaris]

I would keep some Physan-20 or RD-20 (general disinfectant) on hand and in the bucket... Just to make sure the plant has the best chance in the water.

[kavanaru]

sorry, it took a bit longer than planned... here are the pics of my Vanda. As previously said, the bucket is filled with Epiweb (and some LECA just to help keeping humidity longer... The black root you can see in the pics is from the time when I was trying S/H in the traditional way... the root is however not dead, and just have a weird colour. The bad leaves on the basis are result of S/H and too much sun

[Rothie]

Thanks so much for the pictures.It looks odd to me to see a Vanda like this.The only ones I see here in Florida are in wooden hanging baskets with the roots hanging down and out in the open air.They make a beautiful display,but I imagine they would have to be watered several times a day in hot weather.Your watering regimen is much better.Are the roots above the bottom of the bucket,or are they kind of wound up and laying on the bottom?

[kavanaru]

they are still growing down to the water reservoir...

[AaronM]

Good news update. The two vandas that I have been working on have been doing great. Piecing together advice from this post and "Operation Vanda Rescue" (see post), I have new leaves growing as well as tremendous number of new root branches.
While there are no signs of flowers as of yet I'm not concerned as none of my thirty orchids have any flowers or spikes on them. If, by some miracle flowers should ever appear I will post pictures for all to enjoy.

Thank-you to everyone who has contributed and please feel free to add something if you have actually tried the method suggested at the beginning of this posting.

Aaron "The Orchid Whisperer" M

[cirillonb]

Originally Posted by kavanaru

I am growing my Vanda Blue Magic in a S/H bucket filled with EpiWeb instead of LECA. I tried first bareroots, and could not manage to give it enough water. Then I tried S/H (as some said they good luck with S/H and Vandas) but almost killed it. Then I decided to try the EpiWeb version... it is in there since February and is doingfine so far: 5 new leaves and several new roots! I water it once a week like normal S/H... let's see if I manage to get it to re-bloom!!

I apologize if this constitutes hijacking this thread, but I am anxious to see how Kavanaru does this. I received a beautiful Vanda Pakong Blue from Housermann. It was 16 inches high above the medium. It was in a basket. I don't have facilities for hanging baskets but I needed to stabilize this plant since it was top heavy. I planted in a larger clay pot with slits on the side using EpiWeb and a little PrimeAgra. I now submerge it 3 times a week (M,W,F) It seems very happy. Wish I could get to even less watering.
I tried the vase method on a poor specimen from one of the less liked eBay vendors. Its not dead but not really alive either.
Nick
Sorry I didn't turn the page before I posted the above. Also, I didn't follow directions when I posted the next useless item
Nick

[cirillonb]

sorry. I was so excited I didn't turn the page before I posted.
Nick

[trinimom]

Can someone please say what is this?

EpiWeb and a little PrimeAgra.

Thanks