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!

[Leafmite]

If it is like my vanillas, it will make new roots from the joints without any trouble. Keep it humid, give it good light, keep it warm, and soon, new roots. The larger the cutting, the sooner this will happen, it seems. Good luck!

[Silje]

Humidity, good light and warmth. Got it. And I should be able to provide it with all of that.

I need to head out into the bush tomorrow to find a suitable branch or mount for this plant to climb on. I see it's eager to cling on to something.

[Leafmite]

The man who gave me my vanilla cuttings suggested growing them on wire hoops so they could be contained in a smaller area. He grew them in a large greenhouse.

[ASP]

Hi Silje
how is your V. polylepis out of interest?
I have been attempting to grow one in the Uk for about 2 years. It has been a green stick for all that time but I have noticed today a small green nub, so I am hopeful that it may become a slightly more interesting green stick!
I think the growth is due to the humidity and "heatwave" we have been experiencing.

[tropicalvanilla]

Originally Posted by ASP

Hi Silje
how is your V. polylepis out of interest?
I have been attempting to grow one in the Uk for about 2 years. It has been a green stick for all that time but I have noticed today a small green nub, so I am hopeful that it may become a slightly more interesting green stick!
I think the growth is due to the humidity and "heatwave" we have been experiencing.

Hello, I saw that you had vanilla polylepis and that you lived in England. I live in France and I have a large collection of vanilla ( 35 species), I would be interested by an exchange with you

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by tropicalvanilla

Hello, I saw that you had vanilla polylepis and that you lived in England. I live in France and I have a large collection of vanilla ( 35 species), I would be interested by an exchange with you

If you click on Silje's name, then View public profile, you will be taken to the user page. You can see the last visit to Orchid Board was December 11 2017. If you click on the Statistics tab you will see the last post here was February 14 2016. Just before that Silje had a terrible water mold infection devastate the collection. I hope Silje was able to recover from that and continue growing orchids.

[lepetitmartien]

(s…t got to write for the third time the server doesn't like my expired token…)

ASP : keep it warm (25-30°C), just wet mix, wet air, in full sun or near. If it's medium is bark, move to a terrestrial one. I'm using coconut husk/hemp/bark/sphag/perlite/cork at the moment.

If the cutting is dormant (not the active last bit growing on the mother plant) or if planted upside down, it'll be slow to take up.

Guys with polilepis, I'm jealous ^^

[ASP]

Hi thank you for the tips. I have been keeping it too dry and cool - it arrived with some bruising that turned to rot. I had to cut a lot of it away and it has been stable ever since - just not growing.
It is in a mix of African Violet compost with bark, shredded coconut fibre and perlite with a layer of spag over the top. It is sharing a large terracotta pot with a V.imperialis and V.crenulata growing up a coir covered hoop.
The V.imperialis developed some black rot after we moved to a much colder house so I had to cut it back and it how only has one aerial root in the spag - it is dormant too.
The V.crenulata has always grown well and seems much less fussy.
I hope it puts out at least a leaf before the winter comes.

[Discus]

Silje - I wonder if hitting it with some Kelpak might not stimulate further root growth?