First Ascocentrum hybrid seedling spike

[estación seca]

At the end of July I received an order of Vanda seedlings from Motes, including #1944, Vanda christensoniana x ampullacea (or Ascocentrum christensonianum x ampullaceum depending on your orientation.) I put them into vase culture.

Last night I sprayed the roots with fertilizer solution as usual. This morning I went to pour fertilizer into all the vases for a regular all-day soak and noticed a spike forming that wasn't there last night.

They are in a sunroom with 4-6 hours of sun through the window daily. Temperatures vary from the 80s F / upper 20s C by day to minimum 60F / 15C at night. Humidity is 50%-60% by day and 70%+ at night.

I try to water the plants at least once per day. Most of the time this is a spray bottle to the roots, which I try to do in the morning. But if I don't have time, I'll do it at night, before the room cools too much. I try to fill the vases for a 12-hour soak at least once per week, and it seems 3 times per week is even better.

I'm using 1 teaspoon / 5ml powder per gallon / 3.78 liters of MSU rain formulation 13-3-15-8Ca-2Mg in rain water for almost all soaking and spraying. This works out to about 175ppm nitrogen. Once a month the long soak is rain water with 2 teaspoons KelpMax per gallon. I got the MSU and KelpMax from First Rays. There are always lots of new root nubbins formed after the long kelp soak.