Repotting in bloom.. Success!

[hollylee]

I repotted two new phals I got at the lovely home depot. The potting material was soaking wet, nothing good could come of that. So with the advice of you fine orchid enthusiasts I dove in and repotted them both.

While repotting I discovered some little spiders on one of them. I throughly washed the old potting material off and sprayed the leaves, crown roots and all with water, then i gently dried the crown and leaves with a papertowel. I repotted them in bark and perlite, with a little bit of fertilizer for orchids.

I didnt lose a single bloom, and two of the buds have opened with the rest still looking great. I have seen no bugs and am all in all very pleased!

[dgenovese1]

Hi Holly,
Congrats on not loosing any blooms while repotting...it can be tricky!
You mentioned "little spiders". How little were they? If they were spider mites....very tinee spiders...you'll want to watch closely and probably treat both plants with a miticide. I've had spider mites on a couple of phals before, and they can be nasty little buggers. When you kill the adults, their eggs will hatch later (usually within a week or so). Because of this, I treat 3 times, usually 7 to 10 days apart just to make sure I get them all.
Hopefully you didn't have spider mites, and there's nothing to worry about, but I thought I'd say something just in case....I want you to have continued success with your...a-hem... budding hobby!

[Ross]

That's a great report! I am so happy your 'chid responded well.

[Junebug]

Good for you! Repotting can be very intimidating but it sounds like you did a good job and everything went well. As for the spiders, they could be a problem or they could be harmless. I live in Central Fl and see little spiders on my chids sometimes. Mine make little webs but don't seem to be doing any harm and they're probably keeping the ant population down.