Issues repotting cattleya

[Tim P.]

I recently bought a catt, and when the seller said it was overgrown, Heavens to murtagoyd, he meant it was overgrown. It was in a 3.5 inch pot, and it should be in a 6 very comfortably. My problem is, as many may guess, is that this pot is completely roots. They have wound round and round till there is only white roots showing when pulled it out of the pot. I know there is bark medium in the center, and I know it is best practice to take out the old medium, but I made an exception to that rule because this seemed like it was going to harm way to many roots. The medium did not seem like it was terribly decomposed. What i ended up doing was taking it out of the pot and directly putting it in a 6 inch pot because there was already a full pbulb growing outside of the pot with a lot of roots. its all potted up now with only about 3/4 of an inch of breathing room till it needs to be repotted again!

Did I do the right thing, if not what should i do?

[james mickelso]

You did good. Just what was called for. Let it grow and in a couple years do it again.

[Tim P.]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

You did good. Just what was called for. Let it grow and in a couple years do it again.

Thank you so much! I thought it looked like what i would have to do but i never know!

[IncurablePlantHead]

Perfect....exactly what I do when I get one like that!

[tucker85]

I agree with James, I do that same thing all the time.

[NYCorchidman]

This reminds me of my repotting jobs on a few cattleyas very soon. I am sooo not looking forward to working with the roots. lol

So leaving the old mix in between lots of healthy roots is fine? I always hated it not only because it is so hard to get them out of the root ball (and getting new mix inside the root ball, probably worse than getting the old stuff out lol ), but also I tend to worry about it all the time of possible rot.

[james mickelso]

If you repot when it needs it the mix should come out easily. But old media inside the old root ball shouldn't cause issues. If you look at what is in between the old roots you may find that there are few roots there anyway. The roots always grow toward the outside of the pot. And the old roots aren't critical to the health of the orchid. As the pbulbs shrivel they have less need for there roots. After a couple seasons the roots are mostly just storage and can be cut away. The critical roots are those that are on the new growth and growth that is less than a couple seasons old. Unlike oncids, most catts can be repotted every two seasons and the active growth kept near the middle of the pot. But for really great blooms leave the plant grow undivided for 4 or 5 seasons where the plant can divide into more leads and throw more pbulbs. Lots of energy stored for flowering.