Vanda Manuvadee "Pramate' and Vanda Tokyo Blue 'Sapphire' AM/AOS

[OrchidAddict]

I live in PA, and my vanda seedling is doing great propped in a 2" clay pot with no media. In the morning, I fill the pot with water and let the roots soak for a few minutes. Then I dump out the water and put the seedling in a relatively sunny spot on the patio. It's growing like gangbusters. The benefit of the clay pot is that it maintains high humidity around the roots while still allowing for air flow.

If you decide to keep them in bark, do so with great caution...I tried keeping my vandas in pots with media for months...and in every single case, no matter what media I tried or how often or infrequently I watered, the roots rotted. The roots like to dry out thoroughly on these plants in between watering, but they still need the humidity. I thought I could accomplish that with some loose media in a pot, but it didn't work. I had even tried mounting them, but they didn't like that either. I did the humidifier and a fan, and all sorts of other messing around before I figured out the clay pot thing for my seedling. I have my older vandas in glass vases. The vases hold humidity around the roots so you don't need to worry about the relative humidity in your area. Same principle...I fill the vases every morning, let the plants soak, then dump out the water. They love it.

So anyway, I vote you put your seedlings in small clay pots (or small glass vases...as long as they're not flopping around). If you can find pots without holes in the bottom, even better...then you can fill the pot and let the plant soak. I let my seedling soak for about 10 minutes or so. It doesn't matter if the leaves get wet while it soaks...then I dump out the water and put it back in its "happy spot." It's growing happily.

Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you are looking for more specifics or pictures of what I have going on with my vandas!

[stateless]

I have two vanda seedlings that were just doing nothing, I put them in small tree fern pots with a bit of sphagnum moss, which I never use for anything it gets nasty growing outdoors in Florida, watered when dry within a few months the roots were penetrating the tree fern and I used tweezers to remove the moss. It seemed to give the roots the boost they needed to get started. good luck