Potting a Vanda vs. open air basket...

[frostychic]

I recently moved a vanda from an open air hanging basket to a ceramic (non glazed) pot that only has a hole in the bottom. While it was in the open air basket I sprayed it daily (sometimes more than once daily during the hot summer months).

This vanda is about 24" tall (maybe more) and is quite leggy with roots.

We live in Indiana and I've only had Vandas since spring of 2008 so this is my first winter with them... our house is not forced air heat & we have a humidifier so our indoor air is not as dry as I've noticed when I go to some of our friends houses...

When I potted this vanda about 2 weeks ago I put the following in the pot with approx. 1/2 of the roots this plant has... the rest of the roots are outside the pot & give the whole thing a nice, interesting look...

The potting medium is a combination of dime sized river rocks... spaghma (sp?) moss, bark & charcoal... I'm concerned that it might be too "tight"... is there a test you'd suggest that I try to determine if this is a good thing for this plant?

Since I've potted it there has been additional root growth on the external roots and this is consistant with what this plant has been doing for the last several months... it is also continueing to give me more leaf growth as well.

It does look like some of the lower leaves (closer to the base/potted portion of the plant) are starting to wilt but this is difficult for me to tell because the lower leaves have always been folded down rather than upright like the top half of the plant... they look a little lighter green though to me (maybe even slightly yellowing).

The vanda's I have in Jamaica are either in a pot with very large rocks that you can clearly see lots of space in between... or they are in open air baskets... but the humidity is like night and day between Indiana winter and Jamaica winter ...

So... what do you think? Have I put too small of rocks in with this Indiana Vanda? Do you think the mix should have more "air spaces" or ???

I realize that it won't need to be watered as often but what about the external roots... shouldn't I still mist/spray them on a regular basis?

If you'd like a photo I can probably arrange to get and post one over the next couple of days...

Thanks in advance

[Anton]

I prefer them in open baskets so they can "stretch their legs" as i feel they are too cramped in pots. Anyway, they are not in pots in the wild.

What I am getting at is in the wild they are in situations where they can spread and not found in confined spaces.

Just my thoughts on things.

[kmarch]

Your situation, growing indoors in Indiana, is perhaps not the typical Vanda growing situation. We usually hear from Vanda growers that live in southern states and places that do not have cold winters. But I knew the woman who ran Summerfield Orchids in Michigan and one of her specialties was Vandas. She grew them in plastic pots with large-gague bark perelite and charcoal. The large pieces allowed lots of air to get to the roots but still held humidity at the roots between approximately weekly waterings. This technique was used by quite a few people in Michigan to grow vandaceous orchids.

I have an Ascocenda Gail Noyes that I grow this way, indoors all year and it does very well for me. I've had it nearly 4 years, bought it in flower, it skipped the first year flowering then it has flowered for me reliably the last 2 years. I think Cynthia (forum moderator) grows vandas this way too I think.

Other members will be able to explain to you their techniques for basket growing. Humidity is more important with basket growing and they soak their roots fairly frequently but they can explain it better than I since I do not use that technique.

[Brooke]

I grow my lone Vanda and the Vanda family in baskets with lava rock. Even in a g/h I didn't feel the roots were being kept moist enough and I am too lazy to water more than once a day during the summer. When a root grows out of the basket, I tuck it back into the basket again.

I haven't seen the sun for several days now and have not had to water the baskets at all.

Brooke

[articuno75]

I live in Indiana too. I have my Vanda in a basket. I covered the roots with Spanish Moss. I soak my Vanda for hours every other day and mist it daily, sometimes twice a day. The Spanish moss draping really helped. I thought about potting it up. The roots on mine are a little over 3 feet long.

[Wendy]

Right now, because of space reasons. I only grow two Ascocentrums (miniatum and ampullaceum). Both of them are in clay pots with medium coconut and perlite. I stand both pots in a shallow dish of water...it keeps the clay and the medium damp which increases the humidity. The dish is allowed to dry between waterings. When I had full sized Vandas I grew them the same way and everything grew and flowered beautifully. Here are a couple photos of my Ascos. The photo of the ampullaceum (right) was taken when the first flowers were opening. It had a total of 6 inflorescences and is just going out of bloom now.

[LouisW]

I like Jennys technique. The moss keeps the humidity around the roots higher and it holds just a little bit of moisture. Sounds good to me and I bet it looks good too.

[frostychic]

Wow... thanks everyone for your replies.

I had good success thru the summer months with open air basket growing (the plastic basket... not the cedar basket) and really this move to the pot wasn't pre-thought-out... it just sorta happened.

Anton... I totally know what you're saying about them liking to spread their legs out... the vandas I have in Jamaica are either in a cedar basket hanging from the Neesberry tree (now being dubbed the orchid tree) or in the latest case, I've set them right on the tree to grab hold...

I'll attach a couple of photos of the Jamaica brood... (one in bloom)

Anyway, I love the info about the bark perelite and charcoal... maybe I can somehow tweek that formula so that it works in a basket... I really liked this plant hanging... the roots are really cool looking and they are growing UP like the plant... not down seeking something there.

The Vanda I have is Motes Indigo and the roots come out so far up the stem that I'd love to learn more about propogating this vanda (thanks kmarch) but would hate to **gasp** kill it

Anyway... here's a photo or two of the Jamaica vandas on the tree and in bloom.

The first photo is of a recently mounted strap leaf vanda (I only have one Terete leaf vanda in Jamaica... the rest are strap leaf).

[frostychic]

This is another recently mounted strap leaf... on the same tree on the same branch as the other, only to the right of it.

[frostychic]

Oooops... I guess it would help if I attached the photo, doh!

[frostychic]

This little strap leaf has been established in this location since April of 2008... he has quite a grip and I think it's really cool the way it is twisting it's entire body rather than keeping in a straight line with leaves clearly on one side or the other... instead this one is growing a bit like a corkscrew... not sure why the nail is there... someone else's doing, not mine... (note to self to remove said nail next trip).

He is located on the same branch as the other two only to the left of both of them, near the center of the tree.

[frostychic]

Next is another strap leaf ... the one I mentioned is growing in the cedar basket. It has also been established since April 2008 and I wish I had taken photos of it's roots... it is only in the basket with coconut husk pieces and charcoal... the roots have grown around the outside of the basket and are now growing UP and out away from the plant... I'm assuming in an attempt to anchor itself more...

Love the bloom and our houseman called the look of it while it was blooming "fluffy" which I just couldn't understand till I saw it myself... the it was the cluster of 5 blooms that made him call it fluffy... lol

When I talked about moving this plant indoors and making a mount for it one of my Jamaican friends said, "No, you must not move im indoors... he is an outdoorsman now..." LOL

If you look enough you can see how the legs on this one are growing so crazy... that whole "streeeeetching" thing that Anton was talking about

[frostychic]

Here is another shot... this is a clay pot that started out with just one Terete leaf vanda in it. A tree in the yard that did have this vanda growing on the base had to come down recently and I asked our JA friend that is growing Vandas himself if he would go and see to it for me until I could get to the island and decide where to put it... I had the pot with another orchid in it that met it's demise at the hands of a toddler (ggggrrrrr) and so our friend put the terete in it with the very large rocks. Once I saw how nice it was in there then I also put a small strap leaf in the pot... along with a dendrobium and also a cattleya... (I got a little crazy) but hey, if they get too crowded too quickly then I'll just have to break the pot and upgrade a size or something...

I love the way it looks on the concrete table...

See the other dendrobium hanging in the background? This has become totally the orchid hangout... complete with a cattleya species that has always been growing on the trunk of this tree... (I guess it's a cattleya)

[frostychic]

The species cattleya I just mentioned didn't show up in that last photo... it was just barely out of the corner of the shot...

Here it is up close... these grow wild everywhere in Jamaica and people hardly like them as much because you can find them so easily (if you're in the bush that is)... they have small hot pink blooms and they bloom so often and so profusely that it seems like they are always blooming

Is this a cattleya

Or is this a dendrobium

[frostychic]

Sorry I got so carried away with all the photos... I probably need to put some of those in my "kinds of mounts" thread... plus I mounted another one of those species above that I'm asking if it is Cat or Den... mounted it on a cut piece of stump... really liking it too

However, back to the Strap leaf vanda in question ... the Motes Indigo. I'm just not feelin it in the pot... so will sleep on the possiblities of what to do with it... love the basket look but wow, I'd have to have a pretty big basket... I have something that I could mount it onto (a hollowed out stump that is lightweight enough to deal with on the table top, but too large to hang... have another creative hanging idea too... hmmmmmm)

Anyhoo... I'll try to get a photo of the Motes Indigo in it's current location during the daylight hours...

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I'll keep you posted as to what I ultimately decide to do...

[frostychic]

Here is the current home for the motes indigo that I just potted here in Indiana... please excuse my little bay window. It serves my purpose well for an indoor winter in Indiana but it's not nearly as pretty as the Jamaica setting...