Brassia repotting, the plan.

[Ray]

Dave, DO NOT go to a flood and drain system for your orchids.

The common nutrient solution bath is the ideal vector for sharing plant pathogens, and more than one grower has lost an entire collection upon introducing one diseased plant to it.

[Team Ferret]

Ultrasonic fogger, that sounds like an idea to try, thanks.

Ok, on the flood and drain system. I do understand that this type of system would "share" pathogens, but wouldnt also having orchids confined in a closed enviroment? Its not much different than introducing a new animal to the house, there is always risk. But, the type of flood and drain I was thinking of would be for a single plant or maybe a few at the most. When I do the orchidarium I was thinking of doing the F&D for what would be housed in the case. I suppose that if I do it would be a good idea to have some tissue tested from each plant for disease.

A favor please, could someone look at my pic that is linked in my first post, of this thread, and tell me what this new growth is?

One more thing, I do thank you all for your advise. I am sure I seem hardheaded and looking for the most complex way to do something simple. Well, that is because I am and do. Its not out of purpose, its just my nature. I am learing a lot from the folks from this board and will at some point settle down.

Dave

[zonepusher]

One looks like a weed and the other tiny one looks like a new root forming.
Andi

[Blondie]

I saw a little clover-type looking things growing in some pots at a greenhouse. Those little things don't look like part of the brassia to me.

Here are my brassia roots after a watering. I was dunking it in a bucket, but have since learned it's better to just run it under the tap in the kitchen sink to flush it out.

[cb977]

The "thing" on the right in your pic is a weed...and if you have weeds showing on top, there are usually plenty more with their roots below. When you repot, make sure you remove all of them

[Team Ferret]

Thank you. I dont know what new growth from a brassia looks like so I wasnt sure. When I repot I will be sure to remove all the roots of the weed and any other junk that is sticking to the roots of my plant.

I faxed in my order for the stuff to repot, so I should have it here in a few days. Hopefully I can repot this weekend. I will post how it goes and a few pics.

Dave

[Team Ferret]

Good Grief.

So I repotted two this weekend and ended up with seven plants, without cutting a thing except rotted roots.

I started out with prepping for repotting the brassia on Friday evening, I even closed my shop early to get a jump on this project. Yes, I was excited. It came out of the old pot just fine and started the soaking while removing it from the soak to pick off old media about every half hour. I wasnt in a hurry so I was taking my time. The more Sphagnum moss I removed, the darker things looked. Then I started to notice rotted roots (I figured a few was to be expected).

The moss was really packed in tight, so this took a while to get it all removed. It was at about that point I noticed that part of the plant wasnt moving with the rest. A little wiggle here and there and four bulbs slid away from the rest of the group of seven. Ah ha, this big brassia that I bought was really two plants in the same pot, but that wasnt the big problem. Except for the new growths, all of the roots were flat out rotted to paper thin. The roots from the new growths were inactive and had started to rot. So these got trimmed just enough to get rid of the rot.

I soaked the brassia for a total of about six hours in KLN and then potted both in the same (new, bigger) pot. I did see several bumps at the bottom of the bulbs, so I am hoping that the plant was growing new roots and the KLN will help this along, I hope. I didnt finish up until four in the morning.

After feeling a bit depressed about my brassia, and considering the shoddy potting from where I got it from, I figured I would repot the seedling on Sat. This is a Maikai "Louise" that was supposed to be about two years old. It had some new growth and was doing well, I assumed it would be a snap to repot. Ha, I was wrong again.

The Maikai popped right out of the pot and I started the soak. The moss came off a little easier, but it too was packed tight. I dont think it had been in this pot for long. Everything was going well while picking moss off the roots until I came to the center which was hard and black. So I picked and soaked, once again I was in no hurry.

While looking from the top of the plant I saw light through the center, and I was thinking "oh great, this one has the center rotted out". But, as I cleaned I started to see that parts of the plant moved independant of the rest and I started to untangle its parts until the plant started to come apart. It was five small yearlings that had grown tangled, but two of these had had their roots choked off. When I got everything apart, three had some fair roots and two had none. I hit the two rootless plants with CloneX and potted them back in the pot they came from, although on opposed sides of the pot. The three with roots I potted seperated in the same bigger pot.

The plan now is to spray near the roots with a solution of KLN and Superthrive for a week or two and then switch to the nutrients. Oh yeah, cross my fingers and hope for the best.

From now on all new orchids get repotted when they come home.

Dave

[cb977]

Sounds like a busy weekend!

Please give us updates as they come along