Cattleya Removal from Clay Pot

[walkerdee]

Hi All,
New member here.

I was just gifted a Cattleya from my neighbor. It was separated from the "mother plant" a few years ago and has taken a liking to its "new" home.

How difficult will it be to remove this Cattleya from the clay pot without doing more damage than good?

I'm not looking to separate it into 20 plants but I would like to separate some of the newer growths after it is done blooming.

There's no media in the pot. Just plant and roots.

Also, can someone ID this Catt?

Many Thanks!

[dbarron]

This is just an opinion, but my removal tool would be a sledge or hammer and 'gently' tap till the clay pot succumbs and you can remove the pieces from around the plant. Sadly this is why I don't favor clay for orchids.
Complete removal may be relatively impossible...but up to you how aggressive you want to be with it.

[walkerdee]

Originally Posted by dbarron

This is just an opinion, but my removal tool would be a sledge or hammer and 'gently' tap till the clay pot succumbs and you can remove the pieces from around the plant. Sadly this is why I don't favor clay for orchids.
Complete removal may be relatively impossible...but up to you how aggressive you want to be with it.

Thanks for the input. I'm coming to that same realization. I'm relatively new to orchids. Last year I repotted most of my orchids into clay pots. Now that they have all started to really grow and the roots are taking hold, I'm realizing that repotting an orchid that is well established in a clay pot is not a quick and easy process.

[Diane56Victor]

You could use a flat bladed knife to slip between the roots and the pot. BUT, despite the simplicity of the above words the job will be difficult, time consuming and will cause some damage. Thats the nature of such a job. The plant could recover but it will be set back.
With regard to the ID, might not be possible to definitely ID, but to me it has Brassia in its makeup and there is an orchid that looks like yours called
Brassanthe Maikai Myumi.

[estación seca]

Typo... Brassavola not Brassia. These Brassavola hybrids are so vigorous it wouldn't turn a hair if you just pull it out of that pot like a wild beast.

[Roberta]

Welcome!

I vote for the "hammer treatment". Don't worry about the shards that stay attached to roots. It's more about getting access to the middle of the pot, where it may be somewhat cruddy. Once you break the pot, you can get old medium out of the middle and clean up any rotted roots in that area. No need to clean it up completely, but you can tidy up the middle of the pot.

Don't rush to do it right now unless you see the beginnings of new roots. We are headed into winter, in general not a great time to be disturbing roots unless the plant desperately needs it. This one looks very healthy. Also, in cool weather it will dry out more slowly, so establish a watering frequency where it almost dries out but doesn't stay dry for long. Then next spring you can attack.

Impossible to identify a hybrid with any certainty. But based on the appearance of both the flowers and the plant (and bloom time), I'm wondering if it might be Bl. Tetradip. (Mine is just opening) If, after they are open for awhile the flowers fade to white, staying firm for weeks, while the lip keeps purple veining, that would clinch it.

[Relemitty]

Hi WalkerDee and welcome to the Orchid Board.

Mine is an off subject question.
Is the table in the picture a Veakoo Plant Stand.
I have been eyeing one on Amazon.
If it is, do you like it and is it as configurable as they say?

[RJSquirrel]

I think maybe a Brassanthe Maikai "Louise" is perty close. Might even find a tag buried down in there.

Brassanthe Maikai

[walkerdee]

Thanks for everyone's insight. It is very much appreciated!

It sure does resemble a Brassanthe Maikai.

I'm not sure i will do anything with this one in the near future because it's healthy. Clearly it's content where it is now.

Relemitty,
It's exactly the Veakko plant stand. I have 2 of them. You can definitely mix and match. I'm really happy with it.