Rootless Vanilla polylepis

[Silje]

Hello

I received a carefully selected and eagerly anticipated box with orchids today.

Now and then, way too seldom, I get to order a box of orchids from South African nurseries, and today one of these boxes of joy (and endless opportunities for mistreatments and near death experiences) found its way to the farm I live on. It's Christmas and New Years and a whole bunch of birthdays all rolled into one.

In the box is an almost rootless vanilla polylepis. It got aerial roots (that come out at each leaf) that are nice and green and clearly alive, and it got roots that have been in the growth medium that look like rotten phal roots.

Now...how do I help this plant to make roots? That's the question.

I've been playing around with noid rescue phals in plastic boxes and sphag n' bag and all that with varying success, but I find that one thing is to fiddle with nameless phals that you can get in the supermarket, it's something entirely different trying to rescue a wishlist plant. I don't want to play around with my polylepis. I want it to survive.

Heeeeelp!