Long snakey stem--what to do?

13 years ago

Okay, experts! I'm an AVF lurker, n'er a post...till now~~

I don't have many AV's; I'm an orchid gal. Anyone who says they are similar to care for--well...they're not.

Anyway, I've got several healthy-looking plants that are growing in top of snakey, rope-like stems. How does one correct this, please?

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Comments (8)

snappyguy
13 years ago
I suspect what you're talking about is a long neck. Does your plant look similar to a palm tree? If so, depending on how long the neck is there are a couple things that can be done. If the neck is fairly short you can remove the lower part of the root ball, and then scrape the neck with the back of a knife until it is green. Put the plant back in the pot and cover the scraped neck with your AV potting mix. The neck will grow roots. Should the neck be too long for this you can remove all but about 9 leaves, cut off the root ball completely, scrape the neck, and plant that. This is of course not without risk because you are leaving the plant without any roots at all. The neck should regrow new roots, and I have personally done both methods. The second method should be used as a last resort though.
User
Original Author
13 years ago
sg--thank you. I guess if I stretched out the plant, it would look 'like a palm tree'. What the long neck is doing is coiling. The plant looks nice and tidy, and one would not know the neck is so long to just glance at the plant. But I know it's there, and it offends my sense of order. Does that sound crazy? It just seems unhealthy somehow to leave the plants this way. Goes to show my lack of expertise with AVs.
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fred_hill
13 years ago
Hi Elvis,
I have repotted a snakey violet before, It was in a 10" clay pot and the stem went around the inside of the rim almost twice. I have 3 sheets on rejuvinating AV's and basic care and starting new plants from leaves. If you email me I will send them out to you.
Fred in NJ
fred_hill
13 years ago
Hi Elvis,
I have repotted a snakey violet before, It was in a 10" clay pot and the stem went around the inside of the rim almost twice. I have 3 sheets on rejuvinating AV's and basic care and starting new plants from leaves. If you email me I will send them out to you.
Fred in NJ
User
Original Author
13 years ago
Fred, I responded to your email addy as shown on GW. The frontier addy they have on my Member Page is correct, as I hope yours is, but when you simply hit 'send me an email' it goes to the nnex addy, which is not right. Please post here if you didn't get my email...thanks, and sorry for the trouble--I didn't do it!

Constance.
irina_co
13 years ago
Constance - since you are an orchid lady - you know the term "sphag and bag". That's what you can do with your palm tree. You cut the top off, remove extra leaves so you have a small stem and a small plant without roots. You can stick it in a solo cup with light soil - and bag it - and in 2 weeks the plant is rerooted. But if I have a really small piece of the leaf or the small top of the violet that caught rot - I sphag and bag it. IT WORKS.

Irina
m3rma1d
13 years ago
Here you go, Elvis! Last night I made a video just for you!

(and everybody else) :-)

It's here: Long Neck? Off With Its Head!
pembroke
13 years ago
m3rmald: great job on the video. I also have used the plastic bag method with great success. pembroke

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Long snakey stem--what to do?

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snappyguy

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Long snakey stem--what to do?

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