Dividing and Re-potting Dendrobiums Grown in Epiweb?

[AlexS]

Hi,

Quick question regarding the best procedure for dividing Dendrobiums that have been grown in Epiweb chunks in pots, how can I do it without totally destroying the roots?

I have no complaints about the material in use, in fact it's probably worked a bit too well, but seeing as the roots penetrate the material, as opposed to growing around it, I'm worried about the damage I may cause dividing. In the past I've simply skirted the issue by putting the whole plants in a larger pot when they grew too big, now however, they're in 10 inch pots, filled with old pseudobulbs and 12 inch pots are going to be too big for my windowsill. I don't want to move the plants as their current position gets both early morning and late afternoon sun and the plants do really well there, so the time has come for me to face my fears and get the dividing over and done with. However, I can't even begin to imagine how I'm going to get the older pseudobulbs disentangled from both the Epiweb and the roots of the new growths without the plants suffering. Any advice, tips or tricks?

I should mention that I have divided plants before, when I used to grow in bark, so I have some experience with the basic procedure, just struggling with this specific situation.

The plants in question are all unindentified Garden Centre plants, simply labelled Dendrobium, with the exception of one that is definitely Dendrobium 'Anna Green'.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Best,
Alex

[Subrosa]

Epiweb has little to no capacity to store accumulated salts. I'd just soak the root mass and tease off as much of the old media, and pot around what's left.

[Ray]

It's almost impossible to extricate roots from Epiweb/EcoWeb, as the root tissues actually surround the fibers, not just grow between them.

You're going to do some damage, no matter what, so I simply use a finely-serrated knife to vertically cut the root mass (synthetic medium and all) into portions proportional to the divisions, and pot them up.

[isurus79]

Like most repotting efforts, you usually end up damaging some (or many) roots. To minimize damage to the plant, you want to time your repotting efforts to coincide with a burst of new root growth. That way, the new roots just popping out will quickly replace damaged ones. This is true for repotting just about all orchids in all media types.