To re-pot or not to re-pot?

[RosieC]

Yes, just as Jennyfleur has said.

With orchids that go really dormant... to the extent of old roots dying off while dormant and new ones growing in the spring, then it's best to repot when dormant. At that time the roots are doing little anyway so it doesn't matter if they are disturbed.

With phals their roots are permenant. If you disturb and damage them during repotting (difficult to avoid) then the roots struggle a little.

If you repot as new roots are growing then the new root growth gets settled and established in the new pot and quickly replaces any damaged roots.

I've found that some I've repotted when there was no growth have sulked and sat a bit unhappy looking in the new pot, until the growth got going. It's not a major thing, which is why if a plant was already unhappy in it's current pot then I would advise potting straight away, I've just found that repotting when there is new growth is more likely to mean the plant doesn't miss a beat.