What do I do with this mass of roots when repotting?

[RosieC]

I bought a Miltoniopsis in mid November and after warnings from Camille & Nicole about masses of moss at the center of seeming bark potted Oncidium Alliance orchids coming out of Europe (and having had the same problem with my first Miltoniopsis) I decided to repot sooner rather than later.

Anway this is what I found...



This is a real firm mass of roots. It may be an outer layer only but it's packed and I can't find out what's in the center without breaking in to it.

The good thing is that these roots seem in much better condition than my previous Miltioniopsis where the roots were already disintigrating when I repotted only a few days after buying it.

My concerns are...
1. If I tease these roots apart, how will I ever get it back in the pot, and once I get it back in the pot how do I get any bark in amoungst the roots.
2. I don't want to break good roots, I had trouble with my first Miltoniopsis due to bad roots and I really want this one to do well.

So does any one have any idea what I should do? Should I leave it be, or should I try and get in to the center of this mass in some way and then repot.

Currently I just slid the whole lot back in to the pot and left it be, the plant seems healthy over all, after a month since I bought it. One or two outer leaves have dried and fallen off but the p-bulbs still seem firm and as you can see below it still looks healthy.

[WhiteRabbit]

Nice problem to have Rosie!
I would soak soak soak the roots, and maybe use a chopstick or something similar to poke inbetween to loosen everything up. Since it seems there are plenty of good roots I wouldn't be too concerned if a few are broken in the process.
Pot up a size if neccesary, and keep shaking the media down while you go. Just may take a bit longer. Smaller grade media is helpful too. It's also possible that there aren't good roots in the center so you may not need to pot up.
Hope this helps

[herfy]

for starters..I would leave it alone until its done flowering...

[RosieC]

Thanks Sonya, I had already soaked a mixture of small grade bark and medium grade CHC. Now I think that some plain small grade bark will be easiest to get in with this. I can just imagine getting large voids though and still not getting it amoungst the roots enough.

Herf, it's actually finished on three spikes, the flowers are on a fourth and there is a fifth and sixth spike with buds. The flowers on the second and third spikes did not last long and I was worried it was because of a problem in the roots, now I'm not so sure on that... maybe just the cold weather as we let the house get cold at times.

I'm more inclined to wait after seeing these outer roots. I agree that there may be no good ones in the center but at least I know it has these ones. I'm unsure though as the long term health of the 'chid is the most important thing for me.

[herfy]

just a thought whats your thoughts on using moss in the middle?
Not sure what your conditions are or how you feel about moss but it might be a little easier to poke moss through to get to the middle?

I will leave it to the experts tho..I will be watching this thread to see what comes of it.

Good luck

[johnblagg]

Is the bottom part of the root ball just as thick with roots ?

If not maybe you could go into it from the bottom and see?

[RosieC]

John, it's not as thick, but there are still a lot of roots accross the bottom.

The clearest point is arround the top and I think I may be best to turn it upside try and tip off the loose from there then try and go in from the top.

I've seen other house plants with roots like this but never orchids. With others I've just repotted by plonking the whole lot in a bigger pot and adding soil arround the out side, but with orchids the point is (usually) to change the medium. I did attack a similar mass on a Hippeastrum a month or so back but the bulbs of that easily grow new roots and are often sold without roots so I didn't mind breaking quite a lot of them.

[johnblagg]

yeah I agree I hate breaking up roots especially on orchids ....

but man thats a bunch of roots is it not?

[orchidbingo]

Rosie,

I don't have much experience with Milts since I just got my first one this past April. When they were all done blooming around September I repotted. All the roots were in huge matted balls like your. I soaked and actually pulled the mass apart. I broke roots in the process but I dug out a wad of crumbling moss from the center of the mass, I repotted in medium fine bark and all of them have been putting out new growths and new roots like crazy.

Three of the 8 plants I repotted I potted up into 8 inch pots-- they were super overgrown in 4 inch pots-- and the rest I potted up into 6 inch pots.

They are quickly growing into monsters.

Remember-- I have no real idea what I'm doing when it comes to Milts. so lets hope the experts weigh in.

bingo

[RosieC]

Thanks Bingo.

Well if yours are growing like crazy that sounds good even if you're just as new to them as me.

I got my first one in June and it's now almost dead. But the roots were terrible when I got it and even those it had were disintegrating.

The roots on this one encourage me to at least leave it till the new year. I was thinking I wanted to get it done this week but I'm now going to leave it a little longer.

I think I will repot soon though and try and gently tease it all apart.