I buy my Vanda's hanging most of the time. If I get one in a vase I'm lucky ! I soak the roots of the hanging Vanda for around 15 minutes so it's really wet but most importantly, the roots are bendy and less likely to snap. Depending on the size of the plant I decide if it needs to go into a tall vase or a short vase. If it's going in a short vase I slowly curl the roots into the vase until the whole plant is in. I then re-water. If the plant is going in a tall vase I use a coated metal stick and feed it through the basket and fix it to the plant and the basket and then slowly feed the roots and the metal stick into the vase. The stick stops the plant from sinking. I re-water. Twice a week I fill up my vases with reverse osmosis water that I make at home for my aquarium. The tap water in London, England is very hard and full on calcium which leaves marks on the vases and the lower leaves of the plants. I feed once a month at the most. I use a regular feed. At the moment I'm using tomato food. It's cheap, organic and the plants seem to like it. I simply add the liquid tomato food to the water that I use for watering. I know a lot of growers are neurotic about only using the same water once but I use the same water for all of my Vanda's. I fill up the vases, let them drink, empty the vases into a very large bucket and re-fill the next batch of vases. When feeding I use enough water to water and feed half the collection and when they are done I add a bit more food to the next batch to make sure they are all getting a good feed. I got into vase growing because it's the easiest way for me to grow Vanda's. I'm 34, work full time. So I don't have time to spray hanging Vanda's twice a day. I do have some hanging Vanda's. Those that are too big for vases that I water every other day. I also have a 'hospital section' that's a different room where I have Vanda's with root problems hanging upside-down and Vanda's that I've bought in poor condition that need daily watering and lower light levels.
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