Sick/Sad Phal. repot in smaller pot?

[Anthony]

At the end of July I bought this red Phal.


Her last flower fell off about a month ago and I have then repotted the plant into new mix (the old mix had algae and moss on top)

Now, when doing my round I noticed there were no new tips showing. On closer inspection there were mushy roots inside so I took her out of her pot and was shocked to see I had to remove 1/3 - 1/2 of the roots.

The roots that are left look good but aren't in top shape. What should I do? I also think the pot should be smaller now to avoid too much mixture vs roots.

Original pot was 12cm (left), the one size smaller pot I have is 10cm (right).

[tuvoc]

I'd put her in the smaller pot. Your plant looks pretty good overall, I've had worse looking ones bounce back with a little tlc. Keep it warm, and don't let it dry out too much. Good luck.

Kim

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I'd go even smaller than the smaller pot you have posted.

[Anthony]

I do have some 8cm pots, don't know if everything will fit in.

And even smaller than that is the 5,5cm pot but that's really small .

I'll check it out tomorrow, haven't repotted yet. I guess it won't damage the plant if I'll leave it like that for a day.

[OrchidSue]

The small pot is probably okay. Do you use anything for additional drainage like styrofoam? If so, you can layer that with the medium in areas where there may be too much medium. This plant is definitely saveable with some good card-I've had to deal with worse too.

Susan

[zzz888]

You MUST use a smaller pot now!
Use one that just fit the root, and don't use S/H

[Undergrounder]

LOL what a range of responses.. what was your old mix? I would use something similar to your old mix to avoid shocking the roots even more, but obviously fresher and with better drainage.

If you go too small then the poor thing will just topple over. I would use the large pot, but fill the bottom half with rocks, styrofoam chips or something else to account for the better drainage.

You need to initiate lots of new root growth ASAP. Until you get good root growth back expect the plant to stall for a while and possibly lose a few leaves. so it will want decent light, warm temps and humidity if you can provide it. Some superthrive or KLN will help initiate new roots as well if you have some.

P.S. You mention that you'll leave it bare root, make sure you don't do this too long unless you also give it high humidity. That will only stress it more

[Anthony]

I've repotted it in the small pot some days ago.

I've bought some Superthrive on eBay yesterday, should arrive in a few days from the US (and still it's cheaper than local webshops ...)

Can I add Superthrive as a supplement to the water?

[Undergrounder]

Yep but do literally a drop, it doesn't take a lot.