Drought tolerant Vandas for Mediterranean conditions?

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

I believe that this advice would be fairly reliable for you since we are generally in the LA County area.

I agree! Do you keep them indoors? When it comes to watering, have you been able to make it more manageable by having them potted with some media? Do you hang them to let the roots escape and drape?

I'll look into some hybrids with the more succulent-leaf species you mention. Maybe some holcoglossum-vanda hybrids would make it both size manageable and perhaps could find a way to "under water" them without killing them

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I keep them indoors. Vanda lombokensis, Vanda mariae, and Vanda jennae are all intermediate to warm growing and do not grow well outdoors here [Los Angeles County]. The minimum temperature I feel comfortable growing them in is 65 F.

I grow my seedling Vanda roeblingiana indoors as well. This species can grow cooler, (minimum temperature is about 55 F), but I don’t grow this species outdoors anymore because they do better a bit warmer.

I don’t hang the pots.

I keep as many of the roots growing inside the pot as possible. They run the risk of getting snapped if I accidentally bump into them should they be left exposed.

Vanda testacea and Vanda lilacina are quite small. They’re not nearly as large as the others.

I can get away with watering once a week.

Vanda garayi and Vanda miniatum are quite small too, and they’re pretty tolerant of less watering. Although they look similar to each other, there are some differences. The differences are not very obvious if you don’t know what to look for.

[estación seca]

When you say Mediterranean conditions, do you mean growing them outside all year?

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by estación seca

When you say Mediterranean conditions, do you mean growing them outside all year?

Not really, I guess my nickname makes the note redundant, but I wanted to simply indicate that I don't face extreme cold, sometimes, I do face extreme heat and dryness. I grow indoors, but I'm not keen on excess use of my central HVAC system, I much rather keep my windows open, sometimes year-round. So my orchids are relatively protected from extreme lows and extreme highs – yet they're not in a completely climate controlled green house. There's always the chance that an HVAC system will break during a heat wave, which has happened to me, but growing indoors does allow me to keep humidity from plummeting.

So we could call it an apartment micro-climate that is influenced by external Mediterranean conditions, more prone to spikes in heat and humidity based on human activity (such as cooking pasta Lol).

I have hygrometers and thermometers everywhere in the house. The apartment is of decent size 1,025 sq ft, and it was a former textile factory converted into residential units. Compared to my old apartment which was 400 sq ft in a wood pre-war building, I've found it very interesting to observe how temperature and humidity variations are radically different in this mostly concrete structure. I haven't really visited any of these physical properties since high school, but seems like in the old wood apartment indoor temperature could skyrocket whilst humidity would plummet. In this concrete apartment, it has been interesting to observe how humidity is relatively higher as concrete seems to be able to absorb excess humidity but also release it in excess dry conditions.

[Keysguy]

May I take this discussion to a more fundamental, botanical level to try and answer the OP's original question?

Vandas with terete or even semi-terete leaves to a lesser extent are better suited to dryer conditions than typical strap-leaf vanda's. Why? Because the terete leaf structure allows the plant to store fairly significantly greater amounts of water than a strap leaf which is really dependent on roots, roots, roots and water, water, water (substitute humidity for water in one of those instances if you like but water would still be their preference I've learned).

But it's still all relative. In general, any vanda wants warm, wet, humid conditions and bright light to perform optimally. That's not to say you can't get them to live and bloom in sub-optimal conditions but the further you get from optimal conditions, the more work is required of the grower.

I like my conditions. Zero work on my part except for automated misters. I can leave them out for 5 months unattended and come back to being surprised at how much they've grown and how many times they bloomed while I was gone. I'm not bragging, I'm just demonstrating what they do when put in their preferred elements. The less I do, the better they do.

I will tell you that in another life I tried growing them in a greenhouse in New Hampshire. I couldn't give them enough supplemental light nor heat from October to May to be able to give them the water they demanded. If I provided that water, they would rot away in no time. Without the water, most of them just did nothing and over time gradually went downhill. Growing vandas in the higher northern hemisphere is a combination of artwork and a limitless budget.

[estación seca]

Many people grow Vandas indoors in containers with medium. They don't require daily watering in pots, but they shouldn't dry for long. Most people find they need supplemental electric lighting, but somebody as far south as Los Angeles might not need it.