Quote:
Originally Posted by estación seca
I don't ever cut off Vanda roots. I have seen roots I was certain were dead sprout new growth.
Some people do fine with water always in the vase. Other people say when temperatures rise, the water roots die. I have never been able to keep Vanda roots constantly wet in water. They die within about 2 weeks. Perhaps your growing conditions are cooler than mine. I have been able to let them sit in water for 4-5 days while out of town, but longer is riskier at my house.
I do grow Vandas in vases, but the vases are empty most of the time. I fill the vases and soak the roots overnight every 1-3 days in summer, and about once a week in winter. If my growing area were always warm, I think they would like to be soaked overnight every day or every other day.
Commercial Vanda growers water their bare-root plants 1-2 times every day of the year: In the early morning, and again in early afternoon on hot days. They recommend fertilizing every 5th watering.
I have heard two commercial growers say they fertilize with a 20-20-20 fertilizer at 1,500 parts per million nitrogen (2 Tablespoons per gallon / 8ml per liter.) This is vastly more fertilizer than is recommended for almost any other orchid.
I'm not sure how this translates to water culture. I try to do the soak with fertilizer solution every 5th soak. I use a fertilizer concentration with about 750 parts per million nitrogen (a little less than 1 Tablespoon per gallon) because I get some root damage at higher concentrations.
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Thanks for a detailed answer. This plant has not been doing much of anything for the last 6 months, like I said. I watered it every 3 days, and fertilized each time with 20-10-20 fertilizer (Grow More urea free fertilizer) each time. And was just sitting there, doing nothing. Then I started researching about water culture and decided to give it a try and see. Filled the vase with water to cover 1/4-1/3 of roots and let it stay there for a week. At the end of the first week, I noticed one new root emerging. I washed roots in sink with warm water and put it right back into its vase and filled it back up and after another week, a second root appeared. And a new leaf, too
) So, I clean the vase every 6-7days. In NYC it's been pretty cool during this winter. In the room where I keep it, it was about 68F and 30-34% humidity. What should I do as humidity rises and it gets warmer?
Do I have to be very precise with how many parts nitrogen I use for fertilizer?
Thank you
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