Repotting Brassavola nodosa from communal pot

[Lady Oscar]

I picked up this B. nodosa communal pot today during an unplanned trip to H&R, and I was wondering how to keep it (them) happy. When I re-pot, should I separate all the individual plants into separate pots? Would they like to live in a basket or baskets, instead?

[estación seca]

Repotting time depends on the medium in the pot. They would be fine sitting there for another year if the medium is OK. They will be harder to tease apart when bigger. Most people would separate them when repotting.

You might call H&R and ask for suggestions of when to repot.

It will also depend on the climate where you live. Little plants like that could be grown bare-root in a basket, but you would have to baby them. They dry out so fast when they are that small, they might not tolerate being forgotten for a week. Kona side I would not put small seedlings into a basket. Hilo side, you could.

You could also put them into small pots with standard orchid medium, and move to baskets when they get bigger. And I bet in Honolulu you could eventually grow them as a big ball of plant dangling on a chain with no medium at all.

[Lady Oscar]

Thank you for the advice! I tend to be a bit of an under-waterer, so I think when I repot I'll put them in pots with bark medium - maybe little basket pots set into a square plastic pot, like H & R does with some of their small fry.

I'd love to be able to eventually make one of those hanging orchid spheres!