Watering vandas

[cmg.env]

I have a few vandas hanging outside my back door under a carport were they get some morning sun (I live in Florida). They seem to be doing very well. I water them every morning and sometimes (during times of low humidity) I water them twice a day. they are in open pots with no potting material. I fertize them every morning with 35% strength 14-8-10. My watering regimen is.....hit the roots with a solid shower of tap water until the roots are good and soaked..........then I follow up with a spray from a spray bottle containing the fertilizer......Is this a bad practice???? Should I be getting the food to the plant in another way???? Any advice would be helpful and appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

[fred]

Vandas do like water Chris

my opinion is i would not give fertilizer each day.

once a week if fine.

Vanda Care Question

Vandas-newbie

i hope other members will help here also

[NancyG]

Hi Chris,

I also live in Florida. The vandas seem to love it here. I usually water mine once a day, a real good soak. Thank God we are finally getting some rain today. I have switched from fertilizer to worm tea. It has really made my plants alot healthier. Before however I was fertilizing once a week with 1/4 strength fertilizer. 10-10-10 weakly on a weekly basis and bloom booster once a month. That was the advice from the Vanda grower in the area. Mine are all outside in the open basket with no potting material. They all get filtered sun with good air circulation. They can take more sun but not the mid day sun of South Florida.

good luck,
NancyG

[prisana]

Hi Chris,

I used to mist my vandas with very very weak fertilizer solution ( like 1/10 of the strength ) once every other day after I watered them. I had nice , big flowers this last blooming season, much bigger and more flowers than when I obtained them from the nursery. I don't know if the fertilizer had anything to do with it, but the difference was pretty drastic. I would not do it every day , though, and even every other day was almost too much , so let yourself forget to do it a couple of days in a row,then proceed. Be sure to do it after the plant is well watered, even if it's a weak solution .

I sprayed the whole plant lightly, early in the morning. It rained so much here last year in FL that the weekly fertilizer I gave them would just get washed off so I figured this would help, and I think it did.

There are lots of ideas on what to do, but you'll figure out sooner or later on what works for you as I've found out. It doesn't hurt to try out new things .