It needs repotting - do it now, or wait?

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

To answer OP's original question

"Are my rules about not repotting anachronistic or excessively rigid?"

They're your rules and your plants, so follow them or change your rules. You only have to suit yourself. I sure wouldn't judge you or label you either way.

I started this thread because I was uncomfortable seeing people given the advice to repot without first asking (what I see) as essential questions, "Are there roots actively growing?', and if it is sympodial "does it have any emerging growths or new eyes?" But I didn't want to trash someones thread by arguing with the advice being given. I'm okay with keeping my mouth shut and letting all y'all be wrong.

I repot when

• something isn't growing as well as I think it should and want to take a look at the roots.
• when something is outgrowing its container.
• when there's a scale attack I've missed controlling early-on.
• when there's a ridiculous amount of backbulbs.
• to divide and share.

The bullet in your list speaks to the question of timing. Specifically, if you feel you need to know now, you look now. I might wait.

I have seen scale pop up from time to time, but after twice spraying the plant, its neighbors, and their top media with Bayer Rose and Flower Insect Killer (a retail nicotine-based systemic), I usually won't see it again for a few years.

For the other items in your list, I repot under those conditions too, but when I think it is the right time.

Since I grow in only non-organic media there's no point of media breaking down.

More and more I'm beginning to think this is a good idea. Yesterday I potted a C. walkeriana 'SVO Whopper' in a 6" wood basket full of LECA.

I repot whenever I choose, for whatever reason, regardless of timing for the plant. I convert to a mount or off of a mount regardless of plant timing. The occasional setback? Yes, occasionally with mounts.

It is to avoid these "occasional setbacks" that I wait to repot. An orchid repotted at the wrong time may survive, but with stunted new growths, skipping a year of flowering, or sulking for months. An orchid repotted at the right time rarely misses a beat.

And as Ray says, if the repotting situation warrants one can always tweak the surrounding environment with a heat pad, more humidity, less light for awhile, depending on the plant's look after repotting.

This baffled me because short of accidental depotting, such as being dropped on the floor, I can't envision a situation that can't wait. Once the orchid is depotted, the damage is usually done.

-Keith

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by K-Sci

I can't envision a situation that can't wait. Once the orchid is depotted, the damage is usually done.

-Keith

I cannot keep any orchid roots in bark alive during the winter or a rainy summer so when I get a new orchid, it has to come out of the bark. I use red lava rock or NZ sphagnum moss with basket pots.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I cannot keep any orchid roots in bark alive during the winter or a rainy summer so when I get a new orchid, it has to come out of the bark. I use red lava rock or NZ sphagnum moss with basket pots.

I guess this makes sense you gotta do what you gatta do.

It's perhaps off topic, but what causes the roots to rot? I grow smaller walkeriana in fairly fine red lava rock because I got one that way once and grew beautifully. But wet sphagnum can become a lot more sodden and suffocating than bark.

-Keith