Help to identify this orchid

[RandomGemini]

The finer the roots, the finer the medium, as a general rule. That said, what medium you use really depends on where and how you are growing these plants and less on what works for someone else. I grow my Oncidium alliance plants in moss. Many orchid growers hate moss. I don't use it for my phals. I find it keeps my phals too wet, but the oncidiums are a little more water loving.

I grow indoors, under lights. My office, where I have my orchid shelves, is warm all year and it can get dry because it gets cold here in the winters and forced air heating and cooling decreases humidity indoors. I try to avoid that by having a humidifier running, but that only does so much. So... I had to change my growing medium to create enough moisture to keep the pseudobulbs hydrated.

Now, you may not grow like I do. If you're a window sill grower, then bark might work better for you, but remember the slotted pots and remember the finer the roots, the finer the medium. The purpose of a medium for orchids is to maintain humidity around the roots. These things grow on trees in nature. Their roots are exposed to the air. So they get a lot of air movement around the roots, which prevents them from rotting.

You want to try to recreate that, which is why a lot of orchid growers use a chunky bark mix and slotted orchid pots.

Find the medium that works best for how you grow your plants. Be willing to experiment. You're going to fail sometimes, but you'll always learn from it when you do, so it's not really a failure because learning how to do it the right way for you is still a win.

[astrid]

Originally Posted by Katsminpins

I have wondered about the potting mix in all of the orchids I buy at Trader Joes. I had no idea what it is and have also been wondering what to replace it with. I have oncidiums, miltononopsis and a dendrobium all purchased from Trader Joes and all in the same mix. Since they are all in bloom and seem to be doing ok I have been hesitant to repot but your advice is making me think I should go ahead and do it. All of these orchids seem to have such fine roots how do I repot? I'm used to the large roots of the phaelaenopsis.

So, to my knowledge, the potting media they use at TJ's (the one that seems like dirt) is actually something called promix, which is actually good for the orchids.
You can water less often and so on because it is somewhat airy but holds on to moisture. I just repotted about 7 orchids from promix to a bark mix that I prefer. Whenever I unpot from this media, I always find that the roots are in pretty good shape and pretty healthy, which surprises me.

That said, you should definitely repot because you NEVER know what is in the center of that promix media!! Usually it is a ball of foam or sphagnum moss that will keep most orchids too wet in our home-care regimens.
I found all kinds of weird stuff when I repotted my orchids.

With finer-rooted orchids, choose a finer mix if you like. I have my oncidiums in a phal mix (but with some sphagnum moss mixed in) and they all seem to be doing fine. I just water them about 2x/week and the phals 1x/week.

I also keep a layer of sphagnum moss on top of the potting media for extra humidity and moisture, and I spray this whenever it starts drying out.

I have also bought oncidiums from TJ's in pure sphagnum moss, and I am keeping one in the sphag to see what happens, but so far, its roots were amazing! And I only water it about every 1.5 weeks when the moss feels almost dry.

Most orchids from TJs are reasonably potted BUT you never know what's going on inside a pot, so always repot!!

[Katsminpins]

Thanks for your help and advice. One more question, should I wait to repot when the orchid finishes blooming, or repot as soon as I get the orchid home?

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by Katsminpins

Thanks for your help and advice. One more question, should I wait to repot when the orchid finishes blooming, or repot as soon as I get the orchid home?

I would wait unless you notice obvious problems like pests or a poorly performing plant.

[MrHungx]

Originally Posted by Katsminpins

Thanks for your help and advice. One more question, should I wait to repot when the orchid finishes blooming, or repot as soon as I get the orchid home?

Personally, I would repot immediately. Most orchids I buy from Trader Joe's are potted in a questionable manner. Some orchids were originally grown in sphagnum moss and then stuffed into a larger pot with promix, old media and all. Other times the orchids were originally grown in bark and then stuffed into a larger pot with sphagnum moss. However, I find that the roots are healthy even when planted in this manner.

[astrid]

Originally Posted by Katsminpins

Thanks for your help and advice. One more question, should I wait to repot when the orchid finishes blooming, or repot as soon as I get the orchid home?

I always lean a little bit more toward repotting while the plant is still in bloom. If you leave the plant in bad media, you may take over a year to recover it from the damage without seeing any new blooms.

However, if you repot now, you may blast a few buds or have a shorter bloom duration this time, but after all is said and done, you will probably have a healthier plant that will rebloom sooner for you!

That's my logic at this point in time. I may change my mind again, haha!

[RandomGemini]

It's not "may." Oncidiums do drop blooms when they are repotted in bloom in my experience, always. You can probably wait. I have six of these hybrids from Trader Joe's. I repot when the blooms drop, if the medium is bad.

[astrid]

Originally Posted by RandomGemini

It's not "may." Oncidiums do drop blooms when they are repotted in bloom in my experience, always. You can probably wait. I have six of these hybrids from Trader Joe's. I repot when the blooms drop, if the medium is bad.

I just repotted two miltoniopsis that are in bloom, and no blooms dropped. They're as shiny/fragrant as ever.

I've also repotted phals in bloom (multiple times in a week, long story though) without losing any buds or blooms.

So I very much disagree with this statement. I've repotted a ton of plants in bloom with little to no difference in flower duration.

[Stray59]

Astrid:
I have to say, you are most fortunate! Every time I have repotted just about any species of orchid in bloom, I have either lost the blooms entirely or lost most of the blooms. I usually just accept the sacrifice of one bloom cycle to be able to ensure the plant will have many more, and yes, occasionally a bloom will hang in there, or (even rarer for me) a spike will survive and continue it's blooming, but I usually just expect them to blast, and if they don't it's an added pleasure!
And I do know that some species will tolerate the root-rape of repotting better than others; Phalae's do tend to show less stress at repotting and I do know I have had Phalae blooms survive the repotting, but not always. But, I honestly do not think I have every had a member of the Oncidium family hold it's blooms after repotting. That's my experience...........

[lotis146]

I've had a mix of experiences. I repotted Onc. Heaven Scent while it was in spike and after repotting the spike grew longer and had more buds. So I don't think it's 100% certain you'll lose buds and/or blooms but just best to assume it's likely. I mean heck, I've gotten used to assuming that just bringing a new plant home will interfere with blooming.

Something to consider though is that if the plant is still in bloom, and if by all intents and purposes it looks healthy and the blooms beautiful the plant is doing well enough to maintain these blooms in the medium it's currently in. This is where my nerdy side loves to keep track of blooming times and what not so next time the plant blooms I can compare the size, the color, the number and duration of blooming.

I don't think immediately repotting any and all new plants just cuz is really what's best for the plant, IMHO. Consider this: the plant is already having to adjust to this new environment - unless it's not so new! - therefore repotting could potentially serve as another stresser. This would be not only due to the manhandling but also the adjustment to a new media. I'm not saying this is always the case but it's something to consider. Just as you're not guaranteed to lose blooms you're also not guaranteed to set the plant back if you leave it in this media that doesn't immediately look bad.

I've got a Zglm. Louisendorff from a show a couple months ago. It's in Promix, that makes me nervous. And actually it's two plants in one. I've got two pods on it and the blooms died a while ago so I've thought about repotting but then I find one plant has two little new growths, the other has one and they're growing fairly well. I'm at least not going to repot this until both of those little guys have their own roots. But more than anything, this plant seems to be doing well enough that I'm considering trying some promix in the future with water loving plants (have I said yet that I'm an under-waterer?).

Then again I've got a Propescapetalum whose medium is I'm pretty sure CRAP and I have waited too long to repot. So even if you do wait until the blooms die off, don't wait too long after that.

Cheers to all our different growing methods.