Many long air roots; repotting?

[colormydreams]

Hi guys, newbie here. My boyfriend got me this orchid about 2.5 years ago and it blooms regularly (it has buds on it right now, actually, and the last batch of flowers finally dropped off maybe 2 months ago). I've replanted it once with an orchid bark potting mix. That was about a year ago. It had a lot of air roots at that point, but also plenty in the ground.
My problem now is that there are very few roots in the ground but the air roots have multiplied and are very long (see pictures). It still seems to be healthy enough, but I'm afraid it's going to fall out of the pot (all the roots in the ground on the one side have rotted away and it's pulling out of the bark mix). Should I repot it? Is it in too big of a pot? Too small? I'm afraid of breaking off any of its long roots.
Any advice would be great! Thank you!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Does that pot have a drain hole in it? I'm not sure if it is to big as I don't know how many roots are left alive in the pot. The thing with air roots is they look really cool but have adapted to live outside and I don't think they like it when you put them into bark. Was the bark pretty chunky or did it have allot of dirt like stuff in it. You might want to wait till it's done blooming and starts new roots so when you re-pot it the new roots can grow into the new media.

Oh and welcome to the board, there is allot of good advice on here and you might want to read the post at the top of this page 'The phal abuse stops here' it is a long post but I think you only need to read the first few pages to get some good advice about Phals.

[Roberta]

It actually looks quite happy... I am sure that roots in the pot are not in good shape - probably were already rotten when you repotted a year ago. I would suggest that if drainage is good in the pot, just leave it - new roots will grow into new media. The air roots want to be air roots... won't be happy if put into a pot. When you water, put it under the faucet, let the water run out the bottom (and then the air roots will get a bath too). Let it drain well before putting back into the decorative pot. But it looks like the plant is thriving. Not broken, don't try to "fix" it...

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

The pot/medium combination probably leads to the center of the medium remaining wet, without air. There is a drain hole, right?

The plant is fine for now. I would consider repotting when it warms up, into a pot that is shallower or smaller, so the medium has a chance to dry between waterings.

[aliceinwl]

I don't know if this will help with yours, but I've found that the phals I have in cache pots like this do better if the inner plastic pot doesn't sit tightly in the outer pot. I put a few rocks in the bottom of the outer pot to raise up the inner pot so that there is some breathing room. Hopefully that makes sense. My phals put more of their effort into pushing new roots into the media rather than the air after I started doing this.

I also make sure that the plastic inner pot has holes in the sides as well as the bottom. If I want to re-use a plastic pot that doesn't have them already, I melt some in with a soldering iron when I go to re-pot. I don't like to re-pot new additions in full bloom until they're done flowering, but it's always a bit of a tight rope for me in terms of keeping them watered without any root rot without this extra air exchange.

[charlesf6]

to the forum here.

[greenpassion]

Hi. And welcome to the Orchid board. I second much of what others have said here, but I wonder if perhaps if it is actually planted in that ceramic pot, that maybe you could get it out of that and put it in an aerated plastic pot with lots of holes in the sides and bottom. Phalaenopsis orchids don't seem to mind when they are repotted, and in my experience they haven't lost Buds or blooms regardless when I go to repot them. The air roots look quite happy as was already mentioned. But if you don't know what's going on inside the pot it might be good to find out. Maybe it's just me but I don't see buds. I see spikes. Anyway, you will get a lot of really good advice and varying ideas about growing here on Orchid board. Welcome!

[orchidsamore]

The roots are growing out of the pot for two reasons.

First the roots normally grow up NOT down. In nature the Phals grow on branches hanging down. This allows the (bottom of the leaf in an upside down pot) to face the sun and accept high sunlight. After all Phals are a sub-family of Vanda. The roots are growing up since that is where the branch should be.

Second too high an alkalinity will make it impossible for roots to grow in the pot. It is the high alkalinity not too much water that causes rot. Fresh sphagnum moss is ph 5.5 (not the same ph as water) then 2-3 years later it can reach ph 8 or more and you would have a bad time trying to grow an oak tree in that). Bark mix takes longer to reach that level but in 4-5 years it is just as bad as old sphagnum. Phythium fungus (black rot) can not grow in ph 5.5 it grows fast at high levels.

When you buy a cheap Phal the mix can be 3-5 years old since to be cheap they do not replace the mix.