Hello Alan, Somewhere along the line of growing orchids, I was told that the secret to growing orchids was “Grow the roots the rest will follow.” I do believe this to be true though maybe overly simplistic. I believe that the size of the upper part of the orchid is limited by the root size below. The primary limitation is water. All orchid that have leaves and pseudobulbs require water to support the plant cells. The bigger the growths, the more water required, and it has to come from the roots, as leaves will not absorb enough water to sustain themselves let alone grow bigger. If you have few roots your not going to get large growth on top. As far as feeding, I would use fertilizer with the idea of feeding the whole plant. If I wanted to encourage root growth, using hormones would not hurt. The best way to grow larger growths or optimize maturity is to provide the best culture for the particular orchid you are growing. In my opinion plants (and all living things) are a system and you can’t really encourage one part much, or discourage one part and expect the other part to thrive. You play around to much with the system, you end up just mucking up the system. The roots are definitely the foundation of a plant. There are many leafless or nearly leafless orchids that are just a mass of roots, but there are no rootless orchids that survive for very long without roots (as we all know). When you talk about “By restricting the root growth of plants, does one also limit leaf expansion and growth or does the plant simply put more leaf growth out as the roots are not growing so much? I do know your can grow huge plants of Cymbidiums or Paphs by growing them in beds with extensive root runs,” Are you talking about restricting roots by pot size? Cutting the roots? How would you restrict them?
Just my input. Mark Sullivan The advertisement for a good cause. 1% for Orchid Conservation http://www.orchidconservationcoalition.org _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
