Ugh, Sphag packed orchids - I'll always repot if I even buy

[nogreenthumbs]

Last night I repotted an Oncidium Gilded Tower 'Mystic Maze' that's about done blooming. Like the Phal that I repotted recently, the Oncidium was also packed tightly in moss. It was much worse to separate from the moss though because it has much finer roots and a bunch of them. Fortunately, it had a ton of roots and I must have been doing a decent job of not over watering because most weren't rotten. Only the roots in the very center of the pot were bad off. It seemed to have a center made of a fine grained sponge or maybe something like that foamy green stuff that you see for arranging fake plants in a vase at hobby stores. It was truly disgusting and I think took close to 2 hours to pot with the bulk of that time being for getting the old sphag out.

I have no doubt that Sphag is great in some circumstances and can be very useful in certain situations, but when there's a quart of sphag stuffed into a pint sized pot, it's horrible.

Clearly, I'll be doing a much better job of figuring out what to buy from now on (after reading the beginners buying guide sticky thread)

I think I've got 2 good local sources that grow at least some of their own stuff. I remember one of the points in the beginners buying guide thread being to buy their specialty since they've probably grown those vs just purchasing other stuff to fill in their stock.