Repotting Gripes!! Sound off here with me!

[astrid]

Hey everyone!!

Everyone has gone out of flower now and started new growths, so it is time to repot!
I repotted five orchids last night, and I have several things to COMPLAIN about what nurseries have done to these precious and beautiful plants:

1- Dendrobium kingianum- from Matsui -
I unpotted my "Jadzia Dax" and inspected her roots. She was potted in promix. Upon lightly squeezing the media, it all fell away from the plant, revealing a SUPER TIGHT root ball that had just been pulled out of an old pot and plopped into a new pot, just placing more promix around it! It was still perfectly shaped like a solo cup!!

2- Odontonia Papageno "Mi Amour" - from Larry's Orchids-
I let this one bloom and didn't check the roots very closely. It looked like it was potted properly in good bark media, so I let it go for a while. Boy oh boy what a mistake!! ALL the roots were dead because some dingus just left a foam core about 1 inch in diameter in the center of the plant! Gross! Now I'm going to have to recover it for a year... sigh...
Shame on you, Larry!

3- NOID white miltoniopsis - from Matsui -
Nothing too spectacularly bad, but there was a dang ball of sphagnum packed tightly as could be immediately underneath the base of the plant.

Nothing has topped the plant full of baby earwigs that I brought home last summer, though, and I hope nothing will!

Have you found anything absurd/upsetting/disgusting when you were repotting a plant?

[RandomGemini]

Not yet. As soon as mine are out of bloom, I'll let you know! Not looking forward to repotting my Phal. violacea. It looks like it has been in that pot for some time!

[Leafmite]

I just bought a mini Cattleya at a show a few weeks ago and, upon taking it out of the pot, I discovered no healthy roots. I soaked it for a while just to be certain but, no, they were all quite dead. I am not too worried, though. I have been through this before...many times. I filled the basket pot up with LECA and staked the Cattleya on top. It has new growths at various stages so it will be perfectly fine by autumn. As I really like the little Cattleya, I am still very happy that the vendor offered it.

To be honest, I hate re-potting orchids from bark mixes. Pulling the little pieces of bark off the roots is quite irksome. I wish all orchids came potted in LECA.

[Ordphien]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I just bought a mini Cattleya at a show a few weeks ago and, upon taking it out of the pot, I discovered no healthy roots. I soaked it for a while just to be certain but, no, they were all quite dead. I am not too worried, though. I have been through this before...many times. I filled the basket pot up with LECA and staked the Cattleya on top. It has new growths at various stages so it will be perfectly fine by autumn. As I really like the little Cattleya, I am still very happy that the vendor offered it.

To be honest, I hate re-potting orchids from bark mixes. Pulling the little pieces of bark off the roots is quite irksome. I wish all orchids came potted in LECA.

Was it blc. Your mine?
Mine had no roots when I repotted.

[camille1585]

Those problems you list are just how mass producers function. Those noids would be a lot more expensive if they had to take the time to remove the sphag the seedling plants grew in. I also dislike this practice, but now I know that all mass produced onc alliance plants are potted like that, I repot as soon as I get them. This is part of the reason I prefer to get my orchids at specialist growers....

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by Ordphien

Was it blc. Your mine?
Mine had no roots when I repotted.

It was the Blc. Your Mine The roots were long gone by the time I bought it (I did the 're-potting' that evening).

[Daethen]

I recently received some onc. types from a fellow forum member that he had gotten at a big box. It looked like they were planted in potting soil and had that same foam piece in the middle. The root were in really good shape otherwise.

[ddivey36]

Astrid asks...
Have you found anything absurd/upsetting/disgusting when you were repotting a plant?

I HATE it when I repot, thinking I am doing it good and then it SULKS for MONTHS.....

[astrid]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Those problems you list are just how mass producers function. Those noids would be a lot more expensive if they had to take the time to remove the sphag the seedling plants grew in. I also dislike this practice, but now I know that all mass produced onc alliance plants are potted like that, I repot as soon as I get them. This is part of the reason I prefer to get my orchids at specialist growers....

I think you're missing the point of my desire to complain with other people, haha

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by astrid

I think you're missing the point of my desire to complain with other people, haha

Oh but I fully agree with the complaining! I know I have to repot those plants ASAP, which I don't necessarily feel like doing. So its a complaint.

Seems like whatever I write these days on OB gets understood the wrong way...