I buy my Vanda's hanging most of the time. If I get one in a vase I'm lucky ! I soak the roots of the hanging Vanda for around 15 minutes so it's really wet but most importantly, the roots are bendy and less likely to snap. Depending on the size of the plant I decide if it needs to go into a tall vase or a short vase. If it's going in a short vase I slowly curl the roots into the vase until the whole plant is in. I then re-water. If the plant is going in a tall vase I use a coated metal stick and feed it through the basket and fix it to the plant and the basket and then slowly feed the roots and the metal stick into the vase. The stick stops the plant from sinking. I re-water. Twice a week I fill up my vases with reverse osmosis water that I make at home for my aquarium. The tap water in London, England is very hard and full on calcium which leaves marks on the vases and the lower leaves of the plants. I feed once a month at the most. I use a regular feed. At the moment I'm using tomato food. It's cheap, organic and the plants seem to like it. I simply add the liquid tomato food to the water that I use for watering. I know a lot of growers are neurotic about only using the same water once but I use the same water for all of my Vanda's. I fill up the vases, let them drink, empty the vases into a very large bucket and re-fill the next batch of vases. When feeding I use enough water to water and feed half the collection and when they are done I add a bit more food to the next batch to make sure they are all getting a good feed. I got into vase growing because it's the easiest way for me to grow Vanda's. I'm 34, work full time. So I don't have time to spray hanging Vanda's twice a day. I do have some hanging Vanda's. Those that are too big for vases that I water every other day. I also have a 'hospital section' that's a different room where I have Vanda's with root problems hanging upside-down and Vanda's that I've bought in poor condition that need daily watering and lower light levels.

Thank You kindly for your detailed instructions on your Vanda culture.

1. what is tomato food?

2. better do a fertilizer spray method than a bucket soak=you dont want virus or some infestation to spread to all your plants=its only weekly weakly

3. can you post pictures of the upside down Vanda? I am very much intrigued.

Thanks but after almost 15 years of growing Vanda's I'm still disease free ( touches wood for luck ) I'm not sure how to add photos here, I'll do it when I can. If you have a Vanda thats suffering from root rot, has had it's roots removed, simply unhook the wires and turn the plant upside down. This will force the plant to grow roots instead of growing upwards. It's a practice advocated by Martin Motes and David Grove.

Tomato food is a product made from seaweed and other organic substances. It's a food used for feeding tomato plants that's safe to use and safe for edible crops. I use it because it's natural.

Very good to know, Myles...Thanks !