Today, I took a leap of faith and performed a drastic amputation on my biggest Vanda plant - Jairak Heartthrob. It was well over 9ft. from the top of the leaves to the bottom of the roots and has at least 3 keikis.

Just thought we'd be interested to see what I ended up with:

Disconcerting to see that the top half (left) is still nearly as long as it was before it was cut - many more long roots than I thought! The bottom half is a nice size plant with two keikis and a ton of roots, too.


I just dusted the cut ends with cinnamon - anybody have a suggestion of something else I'd be advised to do?

I hope this works because I have been wanting to do something like this too but lacked the nerve. The plant really looks healthy.

Jim

A leep of faith and nerves of steel. It looks really good to me but my biggest Vanda is about a foot tall.

Yeah, I was finally looking at it critically, with my glasses on (what a revelation!) and the right place to cut just presented itself very clearly.

I'm thinking I'll keep the two of them out of the sun for a few days to let them recover from surgery. Will update with any surprises. (hope not, surprises could only be bad, I think)

This week I am due to treat with fungicide again, also. That will ease my mind about fungus invasion into the cut, too.

brave woman! 9 feet is just insane!

Not brave, but desperate might cover it. Dragging her in and out of the house this winter was what convinced me that amputation was necessary. It was like transporting the Queen with her train dragging along behind. Its still around 7ft, but much lighter and less unwieldy now. Way less roots. But if it grows too much this summer, it's going to get chopped again next spring.

I am soooo interested to see the outcome!

I'll update next week, but generally, I think in this case "no news is good news".

Awesome, Elaine!!
I am pretty confident you did well!!

just ONE reason I'm glad to be VANDA free!

Aw, Lindsey I think in the middle of summer you might not feel that way.

My vandas will be enjoying all the rain and humidity and you'll be building a roof over your catts so they can dry out once in a while.

Or . . schlepping them into the house?