Barkeria Spectabilis - Trim dry roots before slab mounting?

[sylvette99]

Good evening all! I'm new to OB, and a relatively new chid lover. I have two Phals, and today I adopted what I think is a Vuylstekeara Cambria, as well as a Barkeria Spectabilis.

As you can see in the attached photo, there are a lot of old dried up roots on the Barkeria. Should I trim these before slab-mounting? I also read that these go dormant in the winter, but it looks like I have some new root and leaf growth so I don't think mine is. Is it best to slab-mount when the plant is dormant or does it really matter?

[RosieC]

I'm afraid I don't know the answer on this. Just giving this post a bump for you

[greenbean]

I don't have much experience with mounted orchids, but I would say new root growth makes it the ideal time to mount your Barkeria. The new roots will help establish the plant faster. Make sure those old roots are really dead by tugging or rubbing gently. If the velamin slips off easily go ahead and prune the roots.

As for dormancy, Barkerias are deciduous and do normally go dormant. However, yours may be a little off cycle or something. If it has new roots and leaves developing, I would recommend continuing to water. It needs to go dormant to develop flowers, but I don't think you would get flowers this year anyways, so it doesn't matter if it goes dormant. If it keeps growing, that just means it will be that much stronger and better established and you can let it go dormant next year.

It may go dormant later on though. If it stops growing and the leaves start yellowing allow it to go mostly dry. Trying to force it to keep growing when it wants to rest won't do any good.

Nice finds, btw. I wish I could find a Barkeria to adopt!