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

[cb977]

Wally! Thank you!!!
I will be out tomorrow searching for unscented talcum posder and my vandas will be getting this treatment!

[Tindomul]

Wally, what a great thread. perhaps you should consider it beeing put in the story in the home page.
Let us know.

[Mahon]

Just a minor correction to your interesting post, Vanda actually has the capability of sending out a new root where it previously bloomed on the same node...

Some other alternatives to induce Vandaceous genera growth is to slightly knick a small hole at the adnations of the nodes, where it will usually kick out a new growth... to induce root growth, you can air layer around the base of the Vandaceous plant, or scrape the old sheaths off, and locate the "dormant" roots, which have not come out of the stem, and look like small circles... make a small mark on top of it, and it will kick out "another" root on top of that one inside the plant... just some other alternatives to play around with, if you get a near death Vandaceous plant... =)

-PM

[justatypn]

Wally, excellent piece, superb . Your a wealth of information with a great green thumb or should I say orchid thumb.. Tks

[cb977]

Pat, thanks for the added information...we're all happy to get as much information as we can

[jags]

Oh.. good ..
That is intiating an auxillaiary or dormant node to throw root..
Let us see the rooting system in vanda plant.. Usually the root starts at 90 degree to the leaf axis..
It is usual the roots start most at the lower most part of the leaf axils the more , meaning the the bottom few leaves.. some times if the bottom portion of the palnt is affected due to bacterial attack or fungal attack due to media problems the roots may die or get stunted or become dormant.. Scales and mould growth can also affect new growth from coming through..
Vandas as a general group like a good amount of light and it is preferable they are mounted in the top of the green house possible at 5 ft and above so that they get maxium sunshine..
Some times it is better that no media is used and only a hanging pot inserted at the bottom of the plant just as an anchor..
The roots love a pot containing water beneath , But touching the roots ... albeit to create a humid atmosphere..
Use of rooting harmone containing alpha NAA and IBa can induce new root growth.. Certain harmones like BA and kinetin also can to a certain extent induce the root growth. The most important thing is to clean the bottom portion using any cleaning agent and apply a contact fungicide to help eradicate the fungal problems present at teh bottom of the plant. Even an existing root tip can be teased by cutting a certain part and applying a rooting harmone.

If humdity is right the root growth starts in an induced plant in 15 to 30 days time. Use of clean Coco Husk can produce a good moisture zone at the bottom.



I might add a few pictures to show exactly the root position and flower axis in a vanda plant to know the mechanism of the root initiation and flower initiation system in the vanda plant.

[Tikva]

Jags, your pictures are going to make me crazy. I've never seen such perfect growing orchids in such amazing amounts. I think we all have a lot to learn from you. Thanks for coming!!

[Ray]

A word of caution to folks rushing out to the baby care department of the local store: talc is a hydrous magnesium silicate. As such it has been known to cause silicosis in miners, but that's not the warning.

Because of the over-reactionary attitudes of "public awareness" groups, most talcum powder in the US is no longer talc, but is based upon corn starch instead. I suspect that it may give you a completely different kind of paste than will true talc.

As to flower deformity, it can happen with either K-L-N or SuperThrive, as they both contain rooting hormones. In my personal experience, it does occur from extended use, but by extended use at high concentrations, and I've only seen it in phalaenopsis.