?? Please watch the video??

[james mickelso]

Arial roots...they are the same as roots that grow in the media. If you cut any root, let it dry for a day, or paste a bandage on the cut end, it will do just fine. Most orchids grow on tree branches or on rock and only need support aka media. Most orchids can be grown with no media at all. Ever see a vanda or ascocentrum? When you plant an orchid on a mount, the orchid wraps it's roots around the mount. Put spagnum on the mount andf the roots usually grow on top of the spagnum. You can cut off "arial" roots and as long as you bandage the cut end, of give it a day to heal, it will grow just as well in media. You can also cut off the older end of a monopodial orchid without any detrimental effects to the orchid as long as you give it the correct environment to continue to grow. Light, water, and food. I grow bonsai for over 40 years and every 3 to 5 years, I cut off a third of the roots of the trees and thinned out the remaining as well as leaves, needles, and branches and the trees responded with vigorous new growth. People keep trying to treat orchids as some exotic being. To see them in their natural habitat would change opinions. So.....here's a challenge for a;ll of you. Take one of your phals, vandas, or any other monopodial orchids, and trim it. Give it what it desires and watch what it does.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Arial roots...they are the same as roots that grow in the media. If you cut any root, let it dry for a day, or paste a bandage on the cut end, it will do just fine. Most orchids grow on tree branches or on rock and only need support aka media. Most orchids can be grown with no media at all. Ever see a vanda or ascocentrum? When you plant an orchid on a mount, the orchid wraps it's roots around the mount. Put spagnum on the mount andf the roots usually grow on top of the spagnum. You can cut off "arial" roots and as long as you bandage the cut end, of give it a day to heal, it will grow just as well in media. You can also cut off the older end of a monopodial orchid without any detrimental effects to the orchid as long as you give it the correct environment to continue to grow. Light, water, and food. I grow bonsai for over 40 years and every 3 to 5 years, I cut off a third of the roots of the trees and thinned out the remaining as well as leaves, needles, and branches and the trees responded with vigorous new growth. People keep trying to treat orchids as some exotic being. To see them in their natural habitat would change opinions. So.....here's a challenge for a;ll of you. Take one of your phals, vandas, or any other monopodial orchids, and trim it. Give it what it desires and watch what it does.

correct me if im wrong, but form my research with bonsai, roots are pruned to keep the tree compact and healthy in such a small pot. once the bonsai is at a stage where it would be considered "complete" (although a bonsai is living and never really complete) and would want to be kept in a pot the same size, such is why the roots are trimmed.