Watering Vandas In Baskets

[cambridgestephen]

I have been growing vandas for about a year and do not have a perfect technique but am learning, if you can try and keep roots a bit exposed on the surface which makes it easier to mist them or have big gaps between the bark it is better, you can also kill root by letting them get too dry, but 90% of the time you will damage them by getting them too wet, so it is better to have them too dry then too wet, after all they readily absorb water through the leaves although too much misting will result in black rot,
S

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[RosieC]

Thanks Stephen.

Mine was bought from Burnham Nursary on a recent visit there and they had several already potted in very large bark with lots of gaps. They looked fairly newly potted and I was unsure how well adapted they are to growing that way. There are some roots visible at the surface which I keep misting, those dry very quickly, but the ones in the medium stay green a long time. I can see plenty of air gaps arround them though.

I keep gently misting the leaves each morning, I was not sure if that helped or not but the guy at Burnham had said to do it. Good to hear they do absorb water that way.

Thanks for the advice

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[Angurek]

I soak them every day from 10-15 minutes in the shower. But the water is hard in my area, so I suspect it might be the reason why my Vandas lose roots so readily.

[britbloke]

I'm in south Florida and Vanda's seem to do very well here. I grow mine in baskets, with a couple of pieces of lava rock, charcoal or wine corks.

I give them very high light, water them once or twice a day making sure the roots are thoroughly soaked by watering and re-soaking 10-15 minutes later. The roots dry out very quickly and are dry most of the day. My Vanda's don't do nearly as well when enclosed in any kind of pot, their roots love to hang freely with the water dripping from their roots.

I'm originally from England (although I never grew orchids there) so I'm sure your culture will be quite different, but high light, high humidity and drying them out quickly seems to be one of the keys...

[Swamper]

Originally Posted by britbloke

I'm in south Florida and Vanda's seem to do very well here. I grow mine in baskets, with a couple of pieces of lava rock, charcoal or wine corks.

I give them very high light, water them once or twice a day making sure the roots are thoroughly soaked by watering and re-soaking 10-15 minutes later. The roots dry out very quickly and are dry most of the day. My Vanda's don't do nearly as well when enclosed in any kind of pot, their roots love to hang freely with the water dripping from their roots.

I'm originally from England (although I never grew orchids there) so I'm sure your culture will be quite different, but high light, high humidity and drying them out quickly seems to be one of the keys...

Except for the part of being from England, I would have said the exact same thing.

[cambridgestephen]

You should use rainwater with 10% strength orchid grow food for vanda, if your roots are green all day you are likely to get root rot in the colder seasons, wet roots for more than 2 days tends to make the roots rot.

[cneos]

The Vandae thrive on high light, high humidity, and steady air movement around the plant at all times. We grow in a greenhouse in NH. Our vandae are in baskets or on a wire. In the summer, on bright sunny days, we drench our vandae several times a day until about 2 PM. Drench until velamen turns green. On cloudy summer days, as long as humidity is up, we may skip watering for that day. Airmovement is constant, not only to keep things cool, but also to prevent stagnant water from causing rot. While some moisture may be absorbed by the leaves, the most water enters the vanda through its roots.
Attached are 'now showing' in our collection. Notice size/thickness on V. tessellata 'Joanna' roots. This plant (stem and roots) stands more than 6 feet tall. On the other hand Seidenides Pixie is just that ... but the 30 flowers on a single inflorescence are special. Other plants are V. Pat Delight and Ascda. Mary's Lemon Drop 'Joanna' HCC/AOS.
Enjoy!

[Swamper]

Beautiful Joanna

[Duane McDowell]

I haven't grown this group in a long time, but here's how I used to do it...
In baskets, they would get a thorough soaking (until the roots turned green) every morning. Then I would fertilize with a soluble fertilizer.
For the most part, basket culture wasn't really practical for home growers, but we didn't want the plants tipping out of pots, either. The solution we came up with was to stuff the baskets into plastic pots with no additional medium around the roots. If the plants got too top heavy, the plastic pot could be slipped into a clay pot. If the roots weren't staying wet enough, a few styrofoam "peanuts" around the roots helped. The big trick, as stated by others, is to get them really well soaked every morning and to allow them to dry out by nightfall. The roots will let you know when they have enough water by turning green. Most of them are also really heavy feeders, and can be fertilized after every watering.
Good luck!

[cneos]

Thank you ... the vandae really are our favorites.