Roots on Vandaceous plants

[wallyworld]

Every time about this time of the year, I have friends bring me their dying vandas and I try to revive them. Usually what happens, like in this instance, the plant got too cold and began losing its leaves and the roots die back to the stem of the plant. As you can see from the 1st pic, the roots have died and the leaves have dropped off. Now what I do, which was taught to me from an old orchid grower, is make a paste to smear on the stem. I use unscented talcum powder and add some KLN or Superthrive to make this paste. You won't need alot but it must be sticky. You smear it on the stem and then spritz the area with water and KLN for the next few days and you will notice that where a leaf was, there will be a node that either bloomed or will make a root. Now if there was a bloom there, it will not make a root. It uses the same node to root or bloom. In about 2 weeks, you will see something like pic#2 with a root starting.

I rather use KLN but I have done it with Superthrive also. In the past, I heard that prolonged use of Superthrive will distort the bloom but personally I have never see that. Superthrive, at least here in Central Florida, can be picked up at WalMart and KLN can be brought from your local supply house. In pic #3, I bought this plant this year at the Trustee show in Orlando in April and now using KLN, you can see the different size of the roots. I use this 1 oz/gal once a month on healthy plants and you can see what happens.

Wally