I have been told to water Vanda roots until their color become
completely dark green.
I have tried to water the roots 5 times with 5 minutes interval;
I even soak one of them in a glass for 30 minutes.
I can not make them turn completely green; there are still white
blotch on the roots especialy near the root tips.
Is there a good way to saturate the root until completely dark green
(I do not use any potting media)?

(Roy) writes:
I can not make them turn completely green; there are still white
blotch on the roots especialy near the root tips.
Is there a good way to saturate the root until completely dark green
(I do not use any potting media)?

If the plant is used to being in a relatively dry environment, the
roots will have a thicker velamen layer, and will have white
blotches. Nothing to worry about, I think. Mine stay in pots with fir
bark chunks. The roots in the bark bits go green readily, the ones
above dont and have the white spots you describe. My relative humidity
is about 40% in summer.

The tips of growing roots will not turn green. I don't know why.

Geir

I go along with Geir. If your roots are in a moist area to begin with
they will go almost all green. If it is dryer they will have small
whitish spots. No big deal. the important thing is moist early and dry
by night time. I grow them from flask. Up to 6 months out of flask
they stay up in the 80% to 90% humid range and when they get misted
the roots turn green all the way. Between 6 months and three years old
I grow them in wooden baskets with no media (the very tiny have a
small amount of moss in between the slats and a few chunks of charcoal
in the basket until they get bigger) in 72-78% humidity and 72-84° The
RO misting lines come on for 45sec two or three times up to 3pm. (the
room stays lit and warm until 10:30pm) The roots do not all turn solid
green when they get misted (some do some don't) Once a week each plant
gets soaked in a vat of very weak fert and fungicide for 45min to 1
hour each. (each set of seedlings gets a separate vat that way
hopefully no virus spreads out side the set of plants of one flask to
another) Still some roots come out of the vat not totally green. The
full grown old ones outside have very large withish areas on the roots
even after heavy watering in the morning.
One thing that does make a very slight difference is if you mist with
RO water instead of tap. With RO the roots seem to turn more fully
green (maybe the lack of minerals allows more water to absorb?)
The difference is very slight and it could just be my own imagination
As long as the roots are growing at the tips you are doing something
right and they should be fine.
"from brain to keyboard is a huge commitment" JRT
NOOK


On 7 Nov 2003 04:08:46 -0800, (Roy) wrote:

I have been told to water Vanda roots until their color become
completely dark green.
I have tried to water the roots 5 times with 5 minutes interval;
I even soak one of them in a glass for 30 minutes.
I can not make them turn completely green; there are still white
blotch on the roots especialy near the root tips.
Is there a good way to saturate the root until completely dark green
(I do not use any potting media)?

Roy,

I have heard of some people soaking their vandas in a large trash barrel
and fertilizing at the same time. I have not used this approach as I
have seen too many wet crowns cause the withering and dying of the
vanda. So, I spray the roots on a daily basis and then allow the
drippers to water them on their cycle. I don't know whether or not the
roots are supposed to turn completely green, though.

.. . . Pam
Everything Orchid Management System
http://www.pe.net/~profpam/page3.html

----------------------------------------------------------
Roy wrote:

I have been told to water Vanda roots until their color become
completely dark green.
I have tried to water the roots 5 times with 5 minutes interval;
I even soak one of them in a glass for 30 minutes.
I can not make them turn completely green; there are still white
blotch on the roots especialy near the root tips.
Is there a good way to saturate the root until completely dark green
(I do not use any potting media)?

On an interesting and almost entirely unrelated note, I once knew
a vanda grower in the San Antonio area (many years ago) who used to have
hundreds- perhaps thousands- of vandas in culture. He had some spectacular
individual plants that were 9' tall, and perhaps taller (it's been a long
time).

Anyway- on certain plants, he used to use small (thimble-sized)
plastic containers that were normally used for allowing people to wear cut
flowers so that the stems were kept in water. But instead of filling the
containers with water, they had fertilizer solution in them, and instead
of sticking flower stems into them, he stuck them onto the actively
growing root tips of vandas. He'd swap them around every hour or so during
the day on plants in his show room.

I have no idea as to the effect on individual plants, but overall
he grew magnificent vandas.

Do not reply to the e-mail address in the header. All mail goes
straight to the FTC as a spam trap. Sorry.


Cheers,

-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ