Grammatophyllum culture: My experience with plants that have lost their roots

 

The aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria left most people in the island of Puerto Rico scrambling to secure the basic survival needs.  I my case, I was so busy at work, that for many months I could not pay attention to my orchids.   The hurricanes destroyed the forest canopy in my locale.  This produced wildly fluctuating temperature, humidity and light exposure.   Periods of extreme rain alternated with periods of almost no rain.  Many of my orchids could not adapt to the new circumstances and died.   Those that survived often suffered massive root loss.   Among those that lost their roots were my Grammatophyllums of the scriptum and elegans type.  As a result, they became much smaller, some plants divided into small groups of rootless pseudobulbs. 

Normally, Grammatophyllums are tough and resilient, but their tolerance was solely tested after the hurricanes.   To compound the problem the tags of most of them were lost.  So I took the remaining pieces and planted them in a variety of mounts to see in which ones they did better.   I have one advantage most people don’t enjoy, the humidity in my locale normally lies in the range that is good for tropical orchids. 

I planted the pieces I had in four different ways.   One was tied to a wire framework, with nothing else to provide attachment or moisture.  Another was put on a small plastic mesh pot filled with bark.  A third one was put on top of a metal wire basket.  Lastly one was tied to the bottom of a wire basket.  Before I go on, I have to explain what is a root basket.   Grammatophyllum often produces a mass of roots with many roots pointing upwards.  The purpose of these roots is to trap leaves and debris that fall on the plant as a source of moisture and nutrients.  A healthy plant often has a large root basket surrounding its pseudobulbs.  Many people affix their plants to tree fern plaques, or grow them in wooden baskets to allow the roots of the root basket to expand at will.  

 After a few years of care this is the results:  The one that was tied to the metal wire mesh has done better, it’s the one that has the most bulbs and the largest root basket.   On second place came the one on top of a metal wire basket, it produced small bulbs until it reached the edge of the basket, then produced the largest pseudobulb of them all.   Unfortunately, I put this one in a planter and it send a mass of roots into the pot next to it.  I had to rip it from the pot and in the process damaged its root basket, I expect it will recuperate quickly.  On third place is the plant growing attached to the bottom of a wire basket.  It has grown slowly, lost some pseudobulbs to rot and it still hasn’t started producing a root basket.  The piece that is growing on top of the plastic mesh pot filled with bark is the slowest growing of them all.  It only has two relatively small pseudobulbs and its yet to start producing its root basket. 

 From these results, I think it is clear that the Grammatophyllum prefer that their roots not be confined and will do better if their roots can grow at will and are exposed to air.  These plants are heavy feeders and need constant fertilization during their growth cycle for their pseudobulb to attain a large size.  High environmental humidity is extremely important in the case of plants that have lost their roots.