Vanda leaves

[orchidaddict789]

Vanda leaves are supposed to be long lasting, lasting years or so. Mine lost 2 leaves in the half year that I've owned it. I can grow phals, oncs, dens...except vandas. They are considered "tropical" orchids. I just wish I have a greenhouse, but what can I do about it? *sigh*

Mine only has 4 leaves (used to have 6) and one new one that's the same size for weeks and weeks. Great.

I'm giving it humidity and more moisture around the roots by putting sphag around it and putting the whole plant inside a bag. Ever since the treatment it has not changed much...maybe leaves a little bit perked up? Or maybe just my imagination. Getting impatient.

[jerrymeola]

vandas are extremely water hungry and decline over time when not receiving enough waer.

You do not list where in the world you live, but here in SW Florida daily watering of vandas is not sufficient to keep the plants in good health. I recommend to my customers that they soak the vanda in a bucket of water for 5-6 hours a week in addition to daily waterings. My vandas, which are being held for sale, will occasionally be left in the bucket for 1-2 days at a time. I have never reached a point where I thought the orchid had enough water.

Commercial sellers of vandas never tell you that they may have the vandas on a three times a day watering system. It is also very common for commercial growers to fertilize every day in the daily watering for about 15 minutes. You can add a weak fertilizer solution to the soak bucket to ge the same effect.

Your new leaf being unchanged for weeks is not unusual I had one not get any bigger for two years. Vandas also bloom only once a year at best. In the future you may be more satisified with Asconsendas. They are a close relative to vandas and look and grow the same but they are capable of blooming 2-3 times a year. However, the flowers have a tendancy to be a little smaller.

Personally vanadas have never given me the satisfaction I expected from them. They were my wife's favorite because of how they looked when purchased and now she refuses to own one.

[orchidaddict789]

Thanks ...Vandas aren't my thing, especially since I live MD which is a far cry from the hot humid southern areas like Florida. I focus on other types of orchids, and I only tried a vanda because of curiosity. Now I think of it, I do not live in vanda-land, I doubt I care really keep up with watering everyday. I actually water every few days because it's in sphag. Used to have it bareroot but I couldn't keep with with the daily watering.

Technically my vanda isn't a pure vanda, it's an ascocentrumXrenantheraXvanda. I just have the habit of calling it vanda. I'll wait for the leaf to grow, then. Oh, and it also doesn't grow roots. During the summer a few root tips extended an inch or two, but no more new roots coming out from the base of the stem. No, roots aren't rotten or dead. I've checked that. They just don't grow.

Here's a pic of the plant.

[Dave]

Jerry great info... I never knew Vandas needed that much! I sold all of my vandas on ebay because I couldn't keep up with the once a day watering cycle and now that I look back I don't even think once a day was enough water because my house was soo dry. Maybe some day I can move to Vanda-Land

[starwhiz]

Thanks for the info jerry. It was after about 8 hrs when I soaked my purple vanda "was labelled princess mikassa" in a bucket of water and it looked more alive. The roots turned greener.

[elona]

do you soak the entire plant or just roots?

[Brooke]

Is it getting enough sun? These are high light plants who just linger if they do not receive enough light.

You can pot it in lava rock, string coir and yes even sphag in a clay pot or net basket and reduce the watering to daily or if sphag, when dry IF it receives enough sun. Even in a g/h I keep all my Vanda family in pots with media to reduce the amount of watering it needs. When the roots escape I eventually work them back into the pot and media.

Most of this family only bloom once a year but will put up multiple spikes and can be in bloom for months.

Take the plastic bag off, give it very high light on your windowsill and it will grow.

Brooke

[bearded orchid]

I agree with what Brooke said. Potted up you can water daily or a little more scantily with sphagum. The biggest factor for success is how much sun they get. Also, the bag will do more harm than good by cutting off air flow and allowing stagnation and fungus to develop. Just keep the little guy satiated and bright and he should do okay. I've got a potted Vanda Sansai Blue that has been doing great thus far. I'm in Indiana, not Vandaland.

[orchidaddict789]

Ah, didn't realize this was my thread from 2005! Unfortunately, the plant in the photo died shortly after. No matter how much I watered and babied the plant, it just kept dropping leaves and its roots started shriveling for some reason. So much for my first try at growing vandas. I got it as a bag baby from Home Depot, back in the times when HD actually had non-noid-phal orchids. Possibly it was already stressed from being dried out there, and my sub-optimal culture made things worse. I don't quite remember all the details since it was so long ago, and I had to re-read this thread to freshen my memories.

Anyways, thanks for the tips. I did not give up on vandas. I don't have the space for pure vandas so I have ascocendas, neostylis, and the sort-of related rhychostylis. Yep, I really do like the idea of adding media. Currently they're in baskets with lava rock or bark. No more bareroot vandas!

Speaking of light, I've been putting them outside in summer, and they've been growing new leaves but no spikes. Oh well, I've had them for maybe a year or less, so I'll see next season.

Then there are the two ascocendas in a bowl that I water almost daily in summer and once a week in winter. I got them bareroot through the mail last summer and they reminded me of my first vanda, but they've been growing leaves and roots.

[orchidaddict789]

Originally Posted by elona

do you soak the entire plant or just roots?

No, don't soak the leaves. You might get water into the crown and cause crown rot. Just soak the roots. It's ok to get the leaves a little wet in the morning, but make sure they're dry by nightfall. I've just had the worst bout of crown rot and leaf rot last month. Can never be too careful!