Papilionanthe teres flask! Help!

[cwcervantes]

Hello everyone! I think I did something silly when I ordered a Papilionanthe teres flask with 15 - 20 seedlings ... I've never grown any terete-leafed vandas before!

Any advice for potting these seedlings when they arrive? I was thinking about doing a compot with a tree fern fiber / charcoal / perlite mix but I've read online that these vandas can grow in regular soil. I think mostly I'm seeing growers from the tropics or nearly so growing outdoors all year.

Thanks and please let me know your experiences.

Cody

[Ron-NY]

to start I have no experience with this species but coming out of flask you may wish to use Sphag in the compot to get them established and after they are established and you hardened them off they can be moves to a better mix.

Do you have experience with deflasking?

[Dorsetman]

I have grown other Vandas from the flask - the broad-leaved hybrids and they are definitely very different from anything else. In compost, they just stood still, for years ... Eventually I went to Thailand , bought a lot of stuff from one of the big nurseries and asked to see their seedlings department. I found that they stand the seedlings upright, one against the next,all the same size and put them in a wire basket - like a seedling tray, but made of wire netting. Then they spray them, three times a day.. I came home, moved my seedlings to similar conditions, and after a couple of months I was able to take the bigger ones out, and move them into another tray,so as to keep plantlets of similar size in each basket, and so on . Eventually I flowered the first one about 4 years after I had started that procedure. Not fast by Thailand standards, but pretty fast for any orchid by UK standards.
May give you some ideas ?