Repotting question: Cattleya pots getting taller and taller

[greyblackfish]

I repotted about 5 cattleyas this season. The rhizomes where sticking out above the medium. When I unpotted them, the roots were grown all the way to the bottom of the pots, so I’ve had to find taller pots to accommodate. That seems wrong since I’ve seen growers on this forum say they need pulb pans for their cattleyas.

Should I be clipping the bottom part of the rootballs to keep the mass shorter? What should I do for future reference?

[Roberta]

No cutting of roots!

With long roots, shallow pots may not work. One way to go to a larger pot without adding too much volume (the diameter increases as the square of the radius, the volume increases by the cube of the radius, all things being equal) is to fill in the center of the pot by inverting a small pot, creating an air pocket to prevent that soggy, airless dead space that would otherwise occur. It's avoiding that airless, wet space that's the goal.

[greyblackfish]

Ahh! I should have done that! I filled in some of the bottom with styrofoam and large bark. But the smaller pot idea would have been much better of a solution. Would make use of the extra net pots I have laying around. Thanks for the advice for now hopefully they’ll do okay. I have bamboo stakes in all of them to make sure I don’t overwater. I got them in 5.5”-6” clay pots. Moved over from 4” plastic pots. It’s definitely a change and I find I’m having to water them more often with the hot weather over here.