Cochleanthes x Pescatoria advice please

[KristenReuel]

Hello!

I need some advice in regards to my Cochleanthes aromatica x Pescatoria lamellosa. I bought it about a year ago when I had little experience with orchids other than phals and catts, and it ended up being very neglected. I'm surprised that it survived, looking through what care info I can find online.

Anyways, now that I've begun to take care of it, it's sending out 5 new growths. It has healthy roots exploding from the base of the plant, travelling upwards. I have noticed dead roots mixed with healthy roots inside of the pot, and when I popped it out of the pot for a look tonight, I could see plenty of healthy roots, and some more dead ones. It's really tightly packed in a moss medium.

Should I repot it, and if so, what medium do you suggest? It sits beside my humidifier, but my environment is still on the dry side. I can water it every day, along with my vanda, if I need to.

I've heard that this kind of orchid resents being repotted. Will repotting it disturb the new growths?

Any advice on this orchid would be greatly appreciated. I've developed a soft spot for it Please help me get it to recover from my neglect!

[terracotta7]

I will be interested to hear the other responses!

I have one cochleathes amazonica, much smaller than yours. It is potted in medium grade bark. I find that I need to water it frequently or it gets those pleated leaves like yours. Mine is much smaller and I have never had it bloom. My tag says intermediate grower, but since we had such a cold winter I kept it on a heat mat. The tag also says "shade" and "keep moist".

Yours looks pretty healthy and in need of a good repot. Have fun!

[orchidsarefun]

it needs to be repotted into a mix consisting of fine bark (65%) and sphagnum moss ( 35% ). The trick is going to be prising away some of the existing moss and trimming dead roots. I ended up doing as best as I could and then plopping into a slightly bigger pot with new mix.
BTW - I think yours' basically survived because of its proximity to a humidifier, they need that airflow and moisture to grow. You may have to keep the humidifier going all year round because of that requirement and because it helps prevent fungal infections which these are prone to ( leaves turn brown ). I have an evaporative humidifier that provides quite an airflow.

[KristenReuel]

Thank you both! The humidifier is actually a rather recent addition... heh heh. I was very very ignorant of orchid care back when I got the orchid in this post. But it seems to be doing much better now.

I shall repot it this weekend!