Please make up my mind!

[peeweelovesbooks]

Here is my personal opinion on repotting:


I repot everything that I buy. I'm actually very ruthless about this practice. If the plant is in flower, I try to make an educated guess as to several factors:

1) Who did I buy the plant from? I tend to stick to certain vendors at this point, and rarely go outside the group that I've settled on. So, if it's a reputable vendor, then I wait until the plant stops flowering and then repot.

2) How do the roots look? See #1. If I can see the roots and they are healthy, then I wait to repot until I'm ready/the plant is ready. If I can't see the roots or they aren't looking to good, I repot.

3) I'll be honest with you though---I usually go ahead and repot. I seldom, if ever, buy plants that are in bloom. I dunno. AT the beginning, I used to buy only plants in bloom, but now I really don't care one way or the other. To me what's most important is the health of the plant. So, the blooms are a little irrelevant really.

So, 99.9999999% of the time I repot an orchid as soon as it gets home. I keep a running inventory of medium and pots.

As someone else pointed out, you have to know:

1) the requirements of the plant
2) your watering habits and
3) how can you provide the appropriate cultural requirements for each plant?

I think that beyond your personal preference, that should answer your questions.


Good luck!

[trdyl]

Originally Posted by peeweelovesbooks

Here is my personal opinion on repotting:


I repot everything that I buy. I'm actually very ruthless about this practice. If the plant is in flower, I try to make an educated guess as to several factors:

1) Who did I buy the plant from? I tend to stick to certain vendors at this point, and rarely go outside the group that I've settled on. So, if it's a reputable vendor, then I wait until the plant stops flowering and then repot.

2) How do the roots look? See #1. If I can see the roots and they are healthy, then I wait to repot until I'm ready/the plant is ready. If I can't see the roots or they aren't looking to good, I repot.

3) I'll be honest with you though---I usually go ahead and repot. I seldom, if ever, buy plants that are in bloom. I dunno. AT the beginning, I used to buy only plants in bloom, but now I really don't care one way or the other. To me what's most important is the health of the plant. So, the blooms are a little irrelevant really.

So, 99.9999999% of the time I repot an orchid as soon as it gets home. I keep a running inventory of medium and pots.

As someone else pointed out, you have to know:

1) the requirements of the plant
2) your watering habits and
3) how can you provide the appropriate cultural requirements for each plant?

I think that beyond your personal preference, that should answer your questions.


Good luck!

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by Cym Ladye

Izzy,

I am going to ask you four questions which should help you make up your own mind:

!) What is your ambient humidity or what is the ambient humidity you can provide for your plants?
2) What are your watering habits?
3) Have you studied the natural requirements of these species and how they grow in their native habitat?
4) Does your environment naturally or can you manually provide them with these requirements?

CL

1. I can provide up to 40% humidity. I have a humidifier running in the room at night.
2. I'm prone to underwatering Oncs., but do well with others. I have bamboo skewers in all my pots, and generally soak and rinse every 7-10 days, sometimes misting the aerial roots in between.
3. Yes, actually. Spent several hours on the net the night I got them.
4. I can provide bright light for the catt, and higher humidity for the stuartiana, which as far as I know are the only two things I will need to supplement.



Also, again- why would the catt. like the clay pot as opposed to plastic?

thank you, everyone for all your replies! I really appreciate it.

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[Cym Ladye]

Izzy,

In my experience, more Catt root rot is blamed on plastic pots than clay pots and it may be only because there are more plants in plastic pots.

Given the relatively lower humidity in Colorado and your tendency to underwater, I think plastic would be fine for you. Water evaporates faster from clay than from plastic as it evaporates though the sides of the pot as well as drains from the bottom.

CL

[Izzie]

Thanks for that clarification!
If the catt would thrive in the clay, I can certainly adjust my watering habits for the little one.

Also, I think I'll go with Ted and M~, and repot the catt in the clay rather than wait for plastic pots or end of blooming. I'd rather save the roots and lose the blooms than wait and have less roots to work with.

IDEA: I just found some plastic liners that fit perfectly (gasp!) in the clay pots- only thing, is that when they rest on the top (caught by the rim), there is about 3/4" left vacant at the bottom of the clay pot. I'm planning on cutting holes and slots in the liner, could I put bigger holes (almost make it like a net pot) in the bottom so roots could venture below it into that vacant space?


I'm getting increasingly nervous about the stuartiana- this week, the endmost bud on the spike blasted for no reason (no big changes have happened).

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Izzie

I'm getting increasingly nervous about the stuartiana- this week, the endmost bud on the spike blasted for no reason (no big changes have happened).

This is pretty common. No worries.

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

This is pretty common. No worries.

Whew! Good to hear.

If the Phal. stuartiana likes to be mounted, would it like being in an old vanda basket that I have? The basket would be a little big- it's 3" across on the inside, and the stuartiana is currently in a 2.5" pot.

I'm sure it would depend on what medium I use?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Izzie

If the Phal. stuartiana likes to be mounted, would it like being in an old vanda basket that I have? The basket would be a little big- it's 3" across on the inside, and the stuartiana is currently in a 2.5" pot.

I'm sure it would depend on what medium I use?

The Vanda basket is too airy for the Phal stuartiana.

You can mount in onto a large piece of cork bark, onto a large tree fern plaque, or a piece of coconut husk plaque.

Maybe the latter choice is better. Don't cover up with moss if you're using coconut husk plaques. Phals don't usually grow on trees with moss. See if this works (it most likely will). They're inexpensive. Purchase here:

www.tindara.com

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

The Vanda basket is too airy for the Phal stuartiana.

You can mount in onto a large piece of cork bark, onto a large tree fern plaque, or a piece of coconut husk plaque.

Maybe the latter choice is better. Don't cover up with moss if you're using coconut husk plaques. Phals don't usually grow on trees with moss. See if this works (it most likely will). They're inexpensive. Purchase here:

www.tindara.com

:/ Maybe I'm thinking of this wrong, but would'nt a mount be airier than a basket filled with moss or CHC?

ETA: that link is not working.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oops! Made a mistake with the link!

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The wood slat basket doesn't have much for the orchid to hold on to. Many of the roots would be dangling in mid-air.

This is not so much the case with a mount, unless the mount is too small. When the roots secure themselves to a mount, one side of the root is exposed to the air, the other side is secured onto the mount. This means less surface area will be exposed to the air.

The funny thing about orchid roots is that when they are grown in pots or if they're grown in wood slat baskets where they are not able to grab onto too many objects, they grow round or rounder than they grow flat. When they're on a mount the roots grow much flatter, thus decreasing the surface area of the roots exposed to the air.

You'll see what I mean when your Phal or whatever you plan to mount establishes itself onto the mount.

BTW, Phalaenopsis roots are very extensive. Most mounts are not big enough to accommodate a full grown, fully established Phal with an enormous, healthy root system. I'd expect the Phal stuartiana to potentially, over a long period of time, to have roots that cover at least a 3 foot tall mount. In the meantime a smaller mount is fine.