Reviving Vanda tessellata

[jantigercat]

Hi all!

I ordered a V. tessellata outside the country where I live and the shipping took three days. The orchid was wilted. :-( I soaked it in a very weak solution of SuperThrive, it got a little better but still the wilted leaves are still there.

How would one proceed to reinvigorate the orchid?

Thanks!

[Ray]

Very warm, high humidity.

In my experience, vandas do poorly in bark-based mixes unless they are extremely coarse, and lose their roots readily. Bare root in a basket with very frequent watering has been the key for me.

[Grim Tuesday]

Has anyone here tried this watering technique (once a week 12 hour soak)? She has another video where she weighs the orchid every hour for the full twelve and found it was soaking up water pretty much linearly until hour 8, which really surprised me.

[estación seca]

Most people water bare-root Vandas every day. Commercial Vanda growers in hot, humid south Florida water every day, and twice on hot days. Less than that and they quickly begin dessicating. When I have bare-root Vandas shipped from nurseries they arrive with fine linear streaks in the leaves, indicating shriveling, after only 2-3 days without water.

Vandas have the potential to make one leaf after another through the year if water and temperature are correct.

In a warm home with low humidity (perhaps less than 60%) watering even once a day is often not enough. When I was growing them in the house in glass jars I needed to soak them for about an hour a day or they began shriveling.