Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzzy
The reason I didn't change the moss is because I had a bad experience before repotting a Phal in active growth. It all but stopped growing, the new leaf stalled and ended up very small, and eventually I lost the plant. It might have been a fluke, but I didn't want to chance it again.
|
You're certainly not alone!
The applicable concept is that roots "tailor" themselves to the conditions they are in as they grow, and once they are grown they cannot change. When you change potting media, you are changing the environment, so the roots that were optimized for the old one may not be for the new one. If the plant is not actively growing new roots to pick up where the old ones are leaving off, there can be issues, as the old roots are just not able to keep up with the needs of the plant.
Two things to consider about that though: 1) the degree of difference between the root zone environments controls the severity of the change, and 2) very often, going from the old to the new version of the same medium is an improvement - the old roots grew into that medium when it was fresh, so will be in better shape to accept "fresh again" upon the change.
Threaded Mode
