Since I don't have many orchids in bloom, I thought I would show what I do have lots of...........roots. Roots inside pots, roots outside pots, and roots attached to mounts. The mounts are heart pine, cork, cypress knee, cypress, cedar, and hickory. I apologize for some of the shots. Roots are sometimes hard to get into focus, at least with my camera.

I love seeing roots. New roots=future flowers and good orchid health.
It's hard to believe you have nothing blooming, Ken. It's an explosion here in this season. Must be because you have all those seedlings! Check my stuff in bloom this month along with Lindsey and Jim from Canada (3 pages) http://www.crazyorchidlady.com...

Hundreds of seedlings but I also tend to sell all my plants that are in sheath/bud. I don't price those any higher than any other blooming size plant and thus, people look for these. I grow few specimen-size plants, and that certainly contributes to my lack of flowers. Mine usually get divided when they are large enough. You know, its a business as well as a hobby. I have a few plants in bloom, but already posted them. I did see that one of my B. nodosa and an Oerstedella (Epi.) centradenia are in bud and several Cattleya alliance plants are in sheath. The Gramm. Scriptum are also growing some inflo. With as many orchids as I have, and with no way to properly display them, I often have something in sheath/bud/flower that I don't see early on. I don't really grow Phal. much, other than Hitomi, Equestris, and Bellina (all compacts) and those bloom more in very late winter/early spring.

Anyway, I have to settle on lots of roots, knowing that the better rooted, the better growing and hopefully, better flowering.

Y'all all have such wonderful plants, such large plants, and such gorgeous flowers. I will never be in your category.

How far is Asheville, NC from you, Kathy @boojum?

Ken, that is a lot of gorgeous roots!

Apparently I can (sometimes) grow more roots than flowers. The pictures were only of those plants that I could photograph, those in the front. My benches are three-deep when it comes to blooming size plants and perhaps ten-deep when it comes to seedlings. I have learned to take delight in small things.......like roots, not losing sight of the importance of the various components that equate to successful growing.

We have had our fill of rain. Thunderstorm after thunderstorm after thunderstorm. I grilled our dinner between two of them. The rain gage shows we have had over 5" today.

Asheville, NC is a 13 hour drive for me.

Long drive. Only 8 for me.

You have some very healthy roots there Ken.

A while back I posted photos of my son's phals. When I was visiting him recently one of the plants had shot out two parallel roots, each 12" long, and they were growing towards a cabinet which has an aquarium inside, part of the filtration system for the larger aquarium on top of the cabinet. We turned the orchid pot so the roots would go in a different direction and the root ends promptly turned back towards the moisture source. It was pretty interesting,

That is interesting, Alice.

Ken, I'm fascinated with roots too. When I bought these Vandas they had a lot of roots but most were thin. Then they lost some of the thin roots and under my care they are growing these huge pencil size roots. All these huge roots are from being with me, and now with double spikes, I think I am feeding them well.

Me too, Gigi. Most of my Vandas came from Apopka and a couple had a whole bunch of thin roots, but now are putting out those big, fat healthy roots. Some are even fatter than a pencil, and the growth tips are over an inch long.


My V. Jairak Heartthrob which is in bloom right now has at least 5ft. of roots that I've been wanting to thin out and prune, but haven't had the nerve. The whole plant is over 8ft. from top to bottom. Anybody got some advice on this? If the roots are thin, and don't green up when you water, or some of them even have algae growing on them, is it ok to just cut them off? I do plan to "top" the whole plant in the late spring, as the top section has several really great roots and the bottom has a big keiki.

Beautiful roots Ken but I would be too scared to cut he roots off. Cutting up the top would be helpful though but be sure they have more than 5 sets of leaves on the lower bottom half; as well as plenty of roots and 5 sets of leaves or more on the top part. This way the lower bottom can recover fast and produce even more keikis and the top part will continue its blooming life cycle uninterrupted.

That's a beautiful Vanda by the way Elaine

@gigiplumeria, I have no plans to ever cut roots off orchids, at least not viable ones. One day I might decide to "top" one of those two big Vanda, but that's a way's off.

The stem with leaves on my big Vanda is at least 4ft. tall, so when I cut it, the top will still be huge, and the bottom section will still have a dozen pairs of leaves plus a good sized keiki. I really should have cut it last summer, but it was blooming or getting ready to bloom every time I thought about it.

What I'm really wondering about is what constitutes a "viable root" on a Vanda? Are they still viable if they are shrunken and/or no longer turn green, or take forever to turn green when they are watered? Are they still viable if they are fat and firm, but covered with green algae?

A couple of my orchid books do recommend root pruning when re-potting other types of orchids, but I can never bring myself to cut off a plump, healthy looking root.

Someone else will have to answer that, @dyzzypyxxy (Elaine). I have little experience in Vanda and have never trimmed my plants' roots. I trim Cattleya alliance and other orchid alliance plants all the time, though those roots are not viable.

I always thought they need to be plump! Green algae might clog up some stomata ( edited to Velamen, not stomata), so perhaps they don't function a 100% ?

I think that's probably true, Ursula. Next time I spray the patio with Physan I think I'm going to selectively spray a few of those roots with the algae on them to see what happens. I've tried rubbing off the algae but it's well rooted into that nice spongey velamen.

Interesting. The only time I ever pruned the roots with what I have is when they look flat and or brittle or hollow. I usually would do the bend test, if the roots will bend and with slight elastic resistance i think it is still healthy and good. I just ignore the algae.