Cymbidium root ball

[pjoeverett]

I have a very large cymbidium that I am trying to repot since it bloomed earlier this spring. The plant is soaking in a bucket and the outside roots are coming loose. However, it looks like the old roots stayed the shape of the old/original pot and they are wound up in a tight ball. What should I do? Looks like plant was just put in a larger pot before I owed it. I can' t tell if roots in center are healthy. I have only one dead/old bulbs to discard so my original plan was to loosen roots and put in larger pot. Now I'm afraid that the center roots will rot. Should I just pull it apart and hope for the best? It appears that all new growth is coming from one side.

[bil]

Originally Posted by pjoeverett

I have a very large cymbidium that I am trying to repot since it bloomed earlier this spring. The plant is soaking in a bucket and the outside roots are coming loose. However, it looks like the old roots stayed the shape of the old/original pot and they are wound up in a tight ball. What should I do? Looks like plant was just put in a larger pot before I owed it. I can' t tell if roots in center are healthy. I have only one dead/old bulbs to discard so my original plan was to loosen roots and put in larger pot. Now I'm afraid that the center roots will rot. Should I just pull it apart and hope for the best? It appears that all new growth is coming from one side.

I had two like this. The pots were splitting when I bought them, so even tho they were in full bloom, I repotted them. When I got them out there was no medium, just a solid plug of roots. Like you I was concerned that butchering the roots to open them out would be unwise, so I got a much bigger pot, filled the bottom with pine bark chunks, filled the gap round the sides and watered as normal. It didn't lose the flowers, or die, so we shall see.

I hope that's some help?

[pjoeverett]

I know they are hardy . I also know that they are difficult to handle . I think I had 4/5 spikes on it last year so I am a little nervous but I may pull/cut off a leafless old growth and put in a larger pot and hope for the best. They remind me of hostas. THANKS !

[WhiteRabbit]

You can start by cutting off the bottom 1/4 - 1/3 of the root mass using sanitized cutters. I then use a chopstick to poke into the mass, wiggle around, to help loosen things up; repeating around, and use the "jet" setting on the hose sprayer, repeating these steps as necessary. It does take some time.

[Cym Ladye]

Many growers use the wet jet method as Sonja suggested after cutting off the bottom 1/4-1/3 of the root ball. I have found that for me the easiest way to deal with this is to let the plant dry out several weeks before starting to tackle it. It then is much easier for me to remove the old bark around the remaining roots with a wooden skewer and to determine which roots are soft and need to be removed.

There are many ways to repot/divide a cym and there will be as many answers to your question as people who chime in with their procedure.

[bil]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

You can start by cutting off the bottom 1/4 - 1/3 of the root mass using sanitized cutters. I then use a chopstick to poke into the mass, wiggle around, to help loosen things up; repeating around, and use the "jet" setting on the hose sprayer, repeating these steps as necessary. It does take some time.

Ooooooo Brutal!