I hate plastic net pots.

If it were mine, I'd just get out my little clippers and clip the rim in 3 or 4 places so that the plant can expand, and then just drop it into a bigger pot or basket. I wouldn't even begin to try to get it out of the basket. The roots have already "figured out" how to be free.

Roberta, I think your recommendation is the best option until it grows far enough beyond the plastic that I can remove the back-bulbs and mount the forward division.

-K

At some point you may be able to clip the plastic around roots to totally set them free, but why risk damaging them? One advantage of net pots - they are pretty easy to cut. And cheap, so no trauma about destroying them to save the roots and plant.

Or just place it into a new pot. Is there rotten sphag in there or just roots?

Reasoning on making vertical cuts in the top part of the basket, to give the pseudobulbs room to expand. The lower part where the roots are, just leave... whatever is in the center of the basket is irrelevant, that's not where the roots are anyway.

The pseudo bulbs are pressed so hard against the side of the pot in the area that needs to be cut, that it is impossible to get the cutters in. At this point I'm thinking I'll have to Dremel.

You don't have to make the cuts where the pseudobulbs are crammed in... do it wherever you can get the clippers in. The plastic is pretty thin - once you make a few slits (especially if they line up with the "mesh" part of the basket), there will be plenty of "give" - the pseudobulbs, as they expand, will just hasten the destruction of the basket. Doesn't have to be pretty, once you loosen up the top you will have relieved the stress on the plant, it will then go where it wants to go.

The middle is deteriorating bark. I may be able to remove the back of the pot and remove it.

When I bought it, I had mounting in mind, but that requires getting the pot off. Stanhopea maduroi flower downward, so a pot is not a good choice, anyway. It will grow and flower well in a wood basket, which appears to be my best "potting" option. Tomorrow I'm going to try Dremeling off the part of the pot rim being pushed out by the new growth - if I can do it without damaging roots.

---------- Post added at 11:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 PM ----------

I'll try what you suggest first, then the Dremel. If that fails I break out the Sawsall (j/k).

Another possible approach to disaggregating the basket... if you have a cheap knife (doesn't have to be sharp), heat up the blade with your torch and slice into the plastic. Like butter. Doesn't take much, you can slice in from the outside that way without applying significant pressure. A soldering iron could do the same thing, but might mess up the soldering iron. If you do that, do it outside so you don't stink up the house with plastic fumes.

Looks like melted candle wax!!

Very true.

K-Sci

Okay, so I started cutting away the plastic with dikes and couldn't stop. I took about a half hour to get it off. The hardest part to remove was the ring at the top where the new growth was pushing the plastic out. But after everything else was cut away, that part came loose. I photographed the end product. Little or no damage.

K-Sci

Looks great!

Wow! Well done!

Looks wonderful!

I have a 4" teak basket for it to live in after it has a chance to heal up on the bench for a couple days.

I Love Roots!

this thread is called root porn so this pic is an orgy????

phal and den on a mount loving the summer wet season


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...781f5c6b_c.jpgUntitled by J Solo, on Flickr

:rofl:

Ohhhh, forbidden root porn!!!!

:whew

I always like when the roots are trying to go back to the pot. Makes it a mess to repot, but I think it means they like the media. I pot a lot in net pots lined with palm fiber to keep the media in, and then 50/50 medium bark/large perlite.

https://i.imgur.com/C4LTG67.jpg

When the roots do that, I solve the "repotting problem" by not doing it. Roots are getting what they want, I'm inclined to not to change it.

Nice! I'm with Roberta on that one. I would just plunk it into another pot when it outgrows this one!

That plant says There's no place like home. :biggrin: And nice seeing you here again Accetobe! I think I haven't seen you here again since my lurking days. :biggrin:

Hi!
I don't know whether this pic's presentable enough for this thread but it surely made my day!
I thought this phal was suffering after repotting as i only saw the blackened roots through the pot and they were always soggy. So i decided i just HAD TO take a peek at what's inside the pot even though it's developing a bud right now.. You can imagine my surprise finding all these green tips instead of a massive root rot :banana:

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3175585a_n.jpgIMG_20210812_170612 by Maria Csanádi, on Flickr[/IMG]

Those are beautiful roots! And certainly belong in the thread.

Wow, I can't believe someone actually remembers me - certainly I was on OSF more than here - but from what I understand that underwent an untimely demise. Glad to be back. Doing the whole parent thing, and started a business, so the orchids took a back burner. Collection went from like a 1000 down to about 75 or so, and reduced from a greenhouse plus a lot of outdoor benches to only 2 outdoor benches and a couple "easy" growers here in San Diego like anceps. I've been expanding a little back into some of the more interesting easy species I used to love (coelia bella, some cyrtochilums). During 2020, I went to Andy's open houses, and never left their empty handed .
Those were the first orchids I had bought in about 10 years.

Lucky for me, but unluckily for my orchids, expecting another kid in January.

Ha! I started lurking here in 2007, had been casually getting into more than a few phals here around 2001 when youngest daughter left for college. My house was a jungle when I started having kids, then all plants got sidelined until they were late teens. You'll be surprised how your plants exponentially explode again once they've flown the coop. :rofl:

One of the things I remember about you (being fairly new to orchids) was you always had all these orchids I'd never heard of, with names I couldn't pronounce or spell. A tough learning curve for me, and I still haven't caught up... :biggrin:

This is the most popular thread on OB!
The Gold Digger is still moving forward!
https://i.postimg.cc/cHYSTbNq/20210813-111505.jpg

That’s downright ridiculous!!!

Phal hygrochila (Hygrochilus parishii, Vandopsis parishii)
 

A victim of the "name games" - to me it looks a lot more like a Vanda than a Phal. And a root machine. I was very sad when I broke a gorgeous new root tip while moving the plant to take a photo of it with a better background (in mid-June, I posted it in the Vandaceous sub-forum, family portrait with Phal Little One). But look what happened - the broken root now has TWO beautiful green root tips!

And it is still in bloom (though just starting to lose a few of the oldest flowers.)

roots only take a few months to grow, flowers take years :biggrin: but those are such fast growing roots that pot will be filled in 6 months time.

Ps: Roberta, your "phal" looks a lot like a vanda parishii. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it had that as a parent at least.

Ain't it though?!:rofl:

It is definitely a species, not hybrid...

At the moment it is lumped into Phalaenopsis. Along with a lot of other things that look nothing like a Phalaenopsis. I looked it all up in Orchidwiz... V. parishii is yet another synonym for Phal. hygrochila . Clearly the taxonomists have trouble with this one... for awhile it was Hygrochilus parishii, the only species in the genus. Well, the trend is away from monotypic (single species) genera so they look for where else to put it. Why it (and for that matter, Sedirea, the other parent of Little One) were put in Phalaenopsis rather than Vanda, I leave to the boffins. (I love that little British-ism, especially fits here)

Just for grins, I took a screenshot of the Orchidwiz list of the names under which it has been known., with dates and references. The one with the green check mark is the nom du jour. Note that RHS has moved all of the hybrid registrations that involve this species into Phal. hygrochila.

Alas, the Rev. Charles Samuel Pollock Parish, whose name used to grace the species, got lost in the shuffle.

I know this is about roots so I did add a couple of roots in my pic :biggrin: but it's mainly about my root protector I have decided to name bob. He was sent from the underworld to cast any thrips or spider mites into oblivion and he has been busy making himself a cobweb fortress in my cymbidium pot.

So meet bob, anyone afraid of creepy crawlies, look away.

Bob is cute! Maybe Bobbie though? (Male spiders do spin webs, but females do it more...)

Well-hung Vanda Chulee Blue Classic No. 5 (the roots are all alive).http://scidmore.com/images/Vanda%20Roots.jpg

---------- Post added at 07:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:44 PM ----------

Fully erect Phaleanopsis
http://scidmore.com/images/Phalaenopsis%20Root.jpg

I bought this C warscewiczii last year and was a small 3 bulb back division with a new lead which a rat promptly ate (seen in front of the picture). I was worried it wasn’t going to make through the winter (one of the few plants I’m willing to move indoors) especially since it was potted in sphagnum.

I prefer a very open mixture and this spring I saw a new lead on one of the back bulbs and new root growth. I promptly moved it to a orchiata/large perlite/fine perlite mix around end of May I think. This is all the root growth since then.

https://i.imgur.com/4IcituZ.jpg