When to repot a C. amethystoglossa?

[Fairorchids]

While bifoliate Catts have a bad rep (about repotting) in general, C. amethystoglossa is probably the most sensitive of the bunch. Longtime C.a. owners keep telling me to repot ONLY when new roots are 1/2" to 3/4" long.

Having said that, I also purchased a bunch of plants from SVO in April (incl. 2 amethystoglossas). I just finished repotting the 21 other plants (all in 3" square pots, some about to go over the edge, but most were not).

I found that the mix was sound in all cases, so I used my 'cheater' repotting procedure. I took 4" square pots, and placed about 3/4" of mix in the bottom. Then I gently removed the plants from the 3" pot, by tapping the pot edge against the edge of my potting table. This pops the entire pot contents out.

I left the mix/root cube intact, and placed the cube in one corner, with the new lead towards the center, of the larger pot. Then I filled in the larger pot with a slightly larger particle size mix.

This approach breaks all the rules, but it is fast, and it works - in part because these plants grow fast. They will outgrow their new 4" pots in 12-18 months. At that point I will have a better idea about how large they get, and what pot size they should go into next.

And lastly, C. amethystoglossa does grow tall (but not necessarily large in terms of pot size). Most of the plants coming out of breeding programs now end up in 20" to 28" height range. This is a vast improvement over some of the old (wild collected) plants, which could grow to 36" to 48" (and 5' plus with spikes).

I am still waiting for the two C.a. to break new roots, so those plants will get repotted later.