Propagating a Vanda orchid is problematic because the plant has a monopodial growth habit. Since a single shoot axis develops without pseudobulbs, uncomplicated methods such as division are no longer necessary. However, you are not completely without a chance. How to propagate a Vanda orchid with cuttings.
New Vanda orchids are wonderful to grow from cuttings
Appointment in spring reduces the stress factor
In the course of the previous care you have already experienced how sensitive a Vanda orchid is constituted. It is therefore obvious that the drastic intervention by taking cuttings means pure stress for the sensitive plant. So choose a day at the end of winter when growth is on the back burner.
Cut and nurture cuttings - this is how it works
If a full-grown Vanda orchid has developed numerous aerial roots, it is suitable as a mother plant for propagation by cuttings. Please use freshly sharpened and disinfected cutting tools. Although the mother plant thrives without substrate, a cutting needs an airy soil mixture for rooting. Therefore, prepare a pot filled with a mix of peat and sphagnum. Follow these steps:
- Take a non-flowering cutting with multiple aerial roots
- Soak in soft water for 2 hours to soften the root strands
- Plant the cuttings so that the cutting point is 5 cm in the substrate
- If necessary, stabilize the offshoot with a small wooden stick
In the semi-shady, warm window seat, water your pet very sparingly for the next 6 weeks and spray it regularly with lime-free water. The young Vanda only receives the first fertilizer when a fresh shoot appears. After an average of 3 months, a Vanda cutting is mature enough to be cared for like an adult plant.
tips
You optimize living conditions for a substrate-free, hanging Vanda orchid by combining the plant with a Tillandsia usneoides. If you simply hang the Spanish moss in the aerial roots, the risk of drying out is significantly reduced. It is only during the diving of a Vanda orchid that the two epiphytes are separated so that the tillandsia does not drown.