Help growing vandas outdoors - Orchid Board

mascia · #1 10-20-2016, 01:42 PM

Hi everyone,
Last April I got my first orchid - a division from a friend - and now I have 35 plants or so (yeah, I know...). I only have epiphytic varieties, growing outdoors mounted on live trees and they're all looking good with a lot of new growth. Now that I know I can keep the plants alive, I'm interested in adding more expensive orchids to my collection, specially vandas.

I was planning to attach them to trees just like I did with my other orchids, but all the care sheets online mention they need tons of water, sometimes multiple times a day. The problem is every now and then I stay out of town for a couple of days because of work, so I don't want to spend money on plants that I won't be able to keep alive.

For reference, I live in a very wet climate, with humidity rarely going below 60% and I also get rain showers regularly, almost every other day during summer. I only water my plants if it doesn't rain for more than 3 consecutive days, and none of them seem to mind, not even the miltoniopsis.

My question, specially to those who grow their vandas outdoors, is - do they really need that much more water than oncidiums, cattleyas or phals? I'd like to hear your experiences.

Thank you!

WhiteRabbit · #2 10-21-2016, 10:23 PM

mascia · #3 10-21-2016, 10:34 PM

Maybe no one here has experience growing them outdoors, so that's why I didn't get any replies

I decided to buy a relatively cheap (but still 4x more expensive than a phal) and small one, with 6 pairs of leaves. I'll see how it does during the next few months.

If it lives through my summer then I'll get more, if not then at least I tried. I'll keep this thread updated with my experience.

Leafmite · #4 10-21-2016, 10:40 PM

I don't have the climate you do so I can be of no help. We have this thing called winter and then the summers are unpredictable (sometimes dry, sometimes wet, sometimes hot, sometimes luke-warm).

Good luck with the new Vandas!

vvesto · #5 10-22-2016, 05:23 AM

I grow all of my vandas outdoors either mounted or in a hanging basket. I have them on the south side of a large oak tree growing with the cattalays in my yard. I live in southwest Florida so it's very wet and humid down here, so for watering I usually mist my plants ever 1-3 days depending on how much time in the day I have, give them a full watering every 1-1.5 weeks, and a bit of fertilizer on the day they get a full watering.

Two of the five Vanda species I have have bloomed for me and all five of them have amazing root growth, leave growth, and one is just slammed with keikis!

Hope this helps!

-W.

estación seca · #6 10-22-2016, 07:11 PM

I don't grow them outside, but I think happy Vandas that get rained on several times a week will easily survive a few days without watering here and there.

mascia · #7 10-23-2016, 04:47 PM

I have mounted mine yesterday between a cattleya that is doing pretty great and a dendrobium phalaenopsis.

It is facing north (I'm in the souther hemisphere), so it gets direct sun in the morning until 10 AM or so.. after that there's a tree that blocks direct sun, but it's very bright. I think it will do fine.

smweaver · #8 10-25-2016, 09:34 AM

I think your vanda(s?) should acclimate to life on a tree well. Some of the species go through periods of fairly dry weather in their native environments. I only have a few vandas, and they get dunked in a bucket of water usually every day during the hot summer, where each one sits for about half an hour. But I work and try to have a life outside of orchids also, so that is about all of the luxury treatment that I'm willing to provide to them. In the winter they get the same "bucket treatment," but only maybe once or twice a week. And they do just fine.

You have the advantage of living in a much more orchid-hospitable climate than I do. So I think you won't have any problems leaving your plants to the whims of nature once in a while if you aren't able to water them. And if you pick hybrids that have V. coerulea as a parent, you might also make the happy discovery (as I did) that they can handle (and even thrive with) much cooler temperatures than what is often expressed as the low-end temperature limit for plants of this genus.

Good luck with your experiment. And please post some pictures periodically so that we can see how you're doing.

mascia · #9 10-25-2016, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smweaver

I think your vanda(s?) should acclimate to life on a tree well. Some of the species go through periods of fairly dry weather in their native environments. I only have a few vandas, and they get dunked in a bucket of water usually every day during the hot summer, where each one sits for about half an hour. But I work and try to have a life outside of orchids also, so that is about all of the luxury treatment that I'm willing to provide to them. In the winter they get the same "bucket treatment," but only maybe once or twice a week. And they do just fine.

You have the advantage of living in a much more orchid-hospitable climate than I do. So I think you won't have any problems leaving your plants to the whims of nature once in a while if you aren't able to water them. And if you pick hybrids that have V. coerulea as a parent, you might also make the happy discovery (as I did) that they can handle (and even thrive with) much cooler temperatures than what is often expressed as the low-end temperature limit for plants of this genus.

Good luck with your experiment. And please post some pictures periodically so that we can see how you're doing.

I'm fascinated by purple/blue vandas, so for now it's just one, a Vanda Pachara Delight. It only has 6 pairs of leaves, so I'm not sure how long it will take for it to reach blooming size.

Unfortunately right now it is unusually cool for this time of the year. It's rained every day for the past week and temperatures will drop to 11C (52F) this week, which isn't common here in the middle of spring.

My guess is it'll really start to grow in a month, when it will be already acclimated to its new environment and temperatures will be warmer.

I'll post pictures later this week!

mascia · #10 11-02-2016, 06:00 PM

So far so good! This vanda was probably grown in a nursery in perfect conditions for all its life, so I expected some setbacks.

It did lose one of its roots that were growing inside the pot, but it looked bad to start with. On the bright side, I have 3 new root tips growing from the biggest aerial root!

Once it gets warmer I expect it will start sending out new leaves.

I know it's a little crowded but it gets a lot of light there.

I'll try to keep this post updated to show progress. Maybe some blooms early next year