Repotting?

[nagal1]

I recently bought three plants, an oncidium,a cattleya and a brassia.They are in 4 inch pots and two are in spike. The plants are large compared to the size of the pots i.e. the plants are about 12inches tall and filling the pots completely. They definitely look as if they need repotting. Should I leave them until the Spring since two are in spike or should I go ahead and repot them? The flower buds on the cattleya are also looking droopy but I don't know if this is the shock of relocating to my house from the greenhouse where I bought them or whether cattleyas have droopy buds at times. Any info appreciated. I could take a picture but the filesize allowed on this site is smaller than most of my pictures and I can't seem to figure out how to start a pic gallery that we are apparently allowed to have.

[ScottMcC]

leave the ones that are in spike alone. generally the first few weeks after a plant blooms is the optimum time to repot anyway. in general, times of active root growth (as evidenced by green tips and new roots emerging from the plant) are the best time to repot.

choose the pot size based on the size of the root ball, not the size of the leaves. you want the smallest pot that the roots will fit in without cramming them too tightly. typically this is MUCH smaller than you would use for a standard houseplant in dirt.

as for the droopy buds, a picture is worthwhile. use an image editing program or microsoft powertools picture resizer to shrink it down to more manageable size. click here for info on picture resizer. to upload it to your gallery, just click "gallery" in the left hand menu bar, then click "upload photos" in the upper right and follow the prompts that appear.

[nagal1]

Here is the Cattleya. What do you think?

[ScottMcC]

if you touch the buds gently, are they floppy, or are they nice and firm?

if they're floppy, that's bad. but plenty of catts will throw buds in weird directions...like this one of mine that sent one straight down.

if they are floppy, it's tough to say if you'll be able to save those buds, but just pay attention to having good conditions for the next few days and hopefully it'll work. if not, there's always next year...

edit: forgot to mention...the plant itself looks well hydrated and potted in the right size pot, so that's not concerning at least.

[Tony]

It looks fine. As long as the bark isn't broken down, leave it in that pot.

[Wendy]

It looks fine to me as well. It will probably bloom just fine right where it is. Judging from the size of the buds those will be good sized flowers.

[nagal1]

The pot you can see is actually much larger than the pot the plant is in, which is inside that bigger pot. Haven't time to take a pic right now but will try later. The buds do feel a bit droopy but the overall plant looks good. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what it does.

[Tony]

I can kind of see the pot inside. For comparison, here is a pic of my Brassia Rex. I put it in a basket a week or two ago, before that it had 4 growths over the edge of the pot. This is perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about. It does not necessarily mean it's time to repot, you want to wait until the bark starts to break down.