Soaking cattleya roots to repot

[james mickelso]

I'm not a big fan of soaking roots. Velamen is a spongy material that wicks moisture quickly and that's all the moisture it can handle. Any further soaking just starts to drown the plant. Just like you sitting in water for hours. You are just baptizing the plant. Not teaching it to swim. A few minutes is all that are required. Soaking doesn't help the plant do anything. Don't worry about leaving in some of the media. For some of my more pot bound I just drop the entire root mass into the next sized pot and call it good.

[judith_arquette]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

I'm not a big fan of soaking roots. Velamen is a spongy material that wicks moisture quickly and that's all the moisture it can handle. Any further soaking just starts to drown the plant. Just like you sitting in water for hours. You are just baptizing the plant. Not teaching it to swim. A few minutes is all that are required. Soaking doesn't help the plant do anything. Don't worry about leaving in some of the media. For some of my more pot bound I just drop the entire root mass into the next sized pot and call it good.

Thanks! In the future I'll go that route. I ended up taking it out after about 1 1/2 hrs total, I managed to coax out most of the old medium, but taking the advice here I did leave some bits that were really stuck.

[katrina]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Velamen is a spongy material that wicks moisture quickly and that's all the moisture it can handle. Any further soaking just starts to drown the plant.

Not really true. First of all, I don't have the entire plant submerged...just up to the pot edge. As for the soaking time...if you grow in clay pots then you know you need to give the pot enough time to also become soaked. W/Clay the roots attach and they attach strongly and if you pull them off before they are ready then you know the roots get damaged. Soaking for longer periods will result in those roots popping right off w/NO damage. None at all.

I've been doing it this way for years...if it were a problem I think I would've lost at least one plant by now. Don't ya think?

As I said in my first post...I do this w/those plants in clay pots. Those growing in plastic pots will release their roots from the plastic much quicker. Just the nature of the materials involved.

[james mickelso]

But....just because the roots after awhile loosen their grip doesn't mean submerging the roots in water for a long time is good for the roots. When watering, you only need to soak the roots for a brief time. After that, when the velamen has absorbed all the moisture it can, any further soaking just starts to drown the plant. As I have always said, you are watering the roots, not the media. If it works for you, then by all means keep on keepin on. I'm just warning against it. It's not the same with roots that are constantly wet when it rains. But again, just an opinion.

[silken]

I don't think soaking the roots a long time helps the roots themselves. But it does help loosen them when attached to clay pots, which is one reason I prefer plastic pots. If the root ball is really tight with lots of old dank bark I do soak the roots for as long as it takes to remove as much of it from the centre as I can. That is where root rot is most likely to occur if the bark is old and mushy and the roots in a tight ball. But I don't get concerned if some stubborn pieces of bark are still hanging on and leave them rather than damage roots. My orchids have never gone down hill from a good soak prior to potting up. I make sure not to water them until everything is dry after potting, which may be a few days or a week. And I soak my bark well before using it also.

[katrina]

James -- we're not talking about watering protocol here we're only talking about some best methods of repotting and getting plants out of existing pots and/or removing old media. I don't submerge my plants for watering or fertilizing...just a good drench w/the hose/sprayer and that's it.

W/my catts (and other dry out between watering plants) I tend to repot when they've overgrown the pot and because I use clay pots and leca or lava that means maybe every 2-4 yrs between repots. So, basically, soaking the plant for 12+ hrs once every 2-4 years will have no lasting impact on that plant. It's not going to hurt it one tiny bit!

Something else to consider..the natural habitat of some of these plants and the fact that many come from areas of wet/dry cycles. For example...During the rainy season many rupics are submerged up to...and in some case over the bottom of...their leaves and it's for longer than a day. They can be submerged for weeks! Yep, you read that right...for weeks those plants can be sitting in pools of water!

I will repeat...I'm only doing this at repot time and it's only w/plants in clay pots and/or w/media that is tough to get out. If the plant is in a plastic pot...I don't have the same difficulty getting the roots to release so I follow a different routine w/those.

Clay, plastic, bark, leca, lava, whatever...if the plant is healthy then an extended soak once in awhile does it no harm. Hell, if someone tends to be stingy w/watering and/or they don't have the time to water as frequently as the plant really needs then a long soak might be just the ticket.

[Cym Ladye]

And then there are those of us on the flip side who find it far easier to remove old mix when the root ball is dry.

[silken]

Originally Posted by Cym Ladye

And then there are those of us on the flip side who find it far easier to remove old mix when the root ball is dry.

I dump out whatever will come easily when the media is dry or just damp. After that is when I soak for the stubborn ones.

[Brooke]

I'm glad I didn't read this thread yesterday because I let an overgrown Catt sit in water for over 24 hours

I have always done the long soak when attempting to remove a Catt vs a clay pot. The roots are much more pliable, the clay is saturated and when I hammer the pot, I can get the roots wound around the pot, growing up and down the pot and in an out of the holes of the pot by wiggling the broken clay chunks away from the roots.

I guess there really is more than one way to skin a catt or how to repot one.

Brooke

[james mickelso]

Yes, whatever works for you keep doing it. There are more than a few ways to skin that old cat. I've run out of skin on that old cat. I just repotted a very large cattleya which had no media remaining under the old pbulbs. I wet the root ball and grabbed a few of the central old pbulbs, pushed up through the vent hole, and after a bit it came right out of the old clay pot it has been in for about 4 years. So your method works even for non-believers like me. I just don't like to sit root masses in water for very long. I see no advantage to doing it. Interesting info on rupics. Thanks. I should read up on them because I am going to start growing them. I have a few (11) and should know more about them so I can get the best out of them. Most are more than a little worse for wear. A friend gave them to me because he was old and was getting out of orchids. K and B, when I disagree with some of the methods I read about here, it is not in disagreement with the poster. It is mainly for the majority of the readers here on the " Beginners" forum. I try and impart info from a mainstream perspective. Beginners make enough mistakes without learning normal cultural requirements. Most of what I have learned was garnered from reading AOS mags for the decades I have been growing orchids, eating out of my gardens for decades, growing bonsai for decades, and making more mistakes than most will ever make. I applaud your innovative ways of growing orchids. I would be thrilled to come over and grow, repot, divide, rescue, and enjoy orchids with you all. In less than two years I am retiring and hope to meet all of the posters/members of the Orchidboard. So remember it isn't about those here who are master growers or have been growing for years. It's about the cultural requirements of most orchids and the beginners here who see a lot of different methods to arrive at the same place. It's not an argument. It's a discussion.