Vanda Kapiolea putting out multiple keikis
I have had the vanda kapiolea for about a year. It was in the eastern wall (no open screen, just a wall) of a northern facing open screened lanai in south Florida. It was in bloom when I got it. The blooms lasted about 3 weeks. It kept growing from the top and the root system became very extensive, but there were no bloom spikes. I originally sprayed it every day, but later on I soaked it daily in the morning for 15 minutes in a 5 gallon pail. I later read that vandas need a lot of light, so I hung it on the backyard rear fence where it received some eastern light in the early morning and later received western light. In that situation, I sprayed it daily in the morning. Within a few days, the top leaves got sunburned, so I transferred it back to the lanai and hung it on a corner of the open screened western facing wall. Shadecloth may be a later option, but so far the leaves are not sunburned. It gets late afternoon direct western light. I cut off about 8 inches of sunburned leaves from the top and used alcohol sterilized shears for this, and then cinnamon was applied. Later, 2 new keikis (about 1/2 inch in length) appeared on the top on either side of the cut stem. I cut those off the mother plant, and after that, saw another keiki underneath. I cut that off too, and after that, I cut about 1/2 inch of the trunk off again. I seriously don't have the time or inclination to propagate new keikis and just want this plant to either form new leaves or eventually get a bloom spike. The root system is very healthy.
Last edited by vandalana; 08-24-2023 at 11:08 AM..
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