What do I do with this Vanda? Potting quest.

[loviek]

My sweet hubby came home with a Vanda as a surprise on monday. I love it, although I was hoping it would be a phal-lol. So now I'm trying to learn how to care for Vandas and will likely keep it inside this winter and move it outside for the spring and humid summer months. This little plant came in a plastic basket and the roots are long and feel dry. I've been spraying it twice a day and even hung the little beauty in my shower this morning so it had a warm humid misting. Should I repot?? or just leave it be and continue to spray daily? If I repot, I think I'll have to cut some roots. It's quite cute, I really want it to thrive. On the tag it says (Vasco. Ascda. Fuchs Gold) x (Vasco Shigenori yamonaka)...

[delphiguy]

id leave it there and not repot.... daily misting wont be enough, if you could dunk them
daily in water that would be great, if not, maybe every other day. Give them lots of
light too. If you decide to pot it, dont remove it from the basket, just place the basket
in the pot so as not disturb the roots.

[Ms...Mary]

Hang That Cute Vanda
Don't Cut them Roots
Lots Of Sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep us posted.

[digitalgate]

in your case , I would repot as your area has very low humidity. If your wet laundry can dry up in the bath room for a day. Then it is too dry. Putting it into a pot will increase the humidity that the plant need. You might need to use moss to increase humidity (use fresh ones not recycled ones). Use a light shade for this plant. The light level requirement is not too high because of vascostylic blood. Ascoenda however is a rather high light plant. So light level requirement should be in the light shade area.U can try and see it can thrive in lower light so as to find the correct light level requirement.

[loviek]

Thanks so much for the replies! I'll hang this little plant tomorrow after a good soaking tonight. :-) This forum is amazing!! Thanks guys.

[frostychic]

Congrats on your first Vanda...

I'm with digitalgate on this one rgarding the advice.

I live in Indiana... have gotten 3 plants (all vandas) shipped to me from Texas. They all were varying degrees of dehydrated (imo)... I have another one on the way that should arrive this coming week, again from TX. Others I've gotten some from Canada & Florida.

Since aquiring these particular TX vandas early this summer I am just now starting to see a difference in their roots... their leaf & the way they hold themselves. I think this was all due to dehydration.

Don't get me wrong, I believe they were well cared for... they also hung in a pot like yours... just that TX isn't humid enough on a regular basis for good vanda culture without a lot of intense misting & probably religious watering.

If you pot it & my recommendation would be that you do just that... give your plant plenty of room for the roots... vanda roots don't really like to be "tight" in their medium, yet you're wanting to increase their hydration so you'll need to use a variety of rock, sphag, wood & charcoal... I know lots of people use choir & coco lining. I don't personally think coco lining holds moisture well enough to be used as the only medium when you're trying to hydrate a vanda. Again, don't pack it all in there tight... you want a loose mix. Once your plant grows larger & the roots are larger too then when you repot you can move to larger chunks for the medium. If you were in a more humid area we probably wouldn't even suggest to pot it unless the medium was large enough to provide good air flow.

Don't try and cram all of the roots into the pot. Some in, some out will do fine. The plant will begin to decide as it produces more roots where those roots should be. I've also read that vanda roots are not able to "feed" as well when they are bent this way & that... they do better (and thus the plant thrives better) when the roots are allowed to remain stretched out.

PLEASE don't cut any roots. Your plant isn't large enough to handle that shock... at a minimum it will stunt it's growth for a while & it could kill it.

These are only my opinions & I'm no expert... I have only been growing Vandas for coming up on 2yrs. My vandas in Jamaica are grown quite differently than my vandas in Indiana.

You could also consider mounting it onto a wood mount that includes some sphag around the roots.

Soooooooo... what color is it going to be when it blooms?