[Dan Miller]

Greetings!

I'm new to the board and I look forward to meeting you and expanding my knowledge of Orchids with your help.

I live a hour north of Milwaukee, WI. I've had good luck with my collection of orchids with the exception of one Vanda (25 plants - 9 species). I have two Vandas that I brought back from the Keys. Both had medium in the baskets. The one that I am having issues with grew three new roots about four inches above the basket. After pulling the medium from the baskets I found that many of the roots had died (too wet?). Shortly afterwords, the leaves dropped below the new roots and the plant has a "long neck" with a couple live roots in the basket.

My biggest challenge is manageing humidity here. I have jardonier with a small clay pot inverted in the bottom. I keep the jardonier filled with water just below the top of the clay pot and the vanda basket sits on top. I water in the morning and afternoon with room temp water from my RO unit but my leaves are still showing stress from lack of water. My fertilize every other week and I alternate those feedings with bloom booster.

Any ideas? Should I consider cutting the bottom of the plant off below the new roots (two of the tree roots are 18" long with many smaller roots branching off - all have green tips)? My other vandas basket is filled with long strips of thin wood shavings. That plant is doing well (is about to bloom with a new spike) but it has started a new root about 1" up into the leaves. Humidity in my house is 49% now and in the 30s in the winter.

All advice welcome. Thank you in advance!