Repotting frequency for Phalenopsis

[iceicebaby]

Hi I have a friend whose Phalenopsis plants deteriorate when they reach the third year of their life and die.
I suspect she is not re potting them at the right time and hence she is loosing her plants.She never re-pots.
Please throw some light on what is the optimum time interval after which we should re-pot our phals.
thanking you in advance,

regards,

Dev

[johnblagg]

well that realy depends on what medium they are in ...I use rice hulls and repot every spring and every fall....in the fall sometimes its simply pull out of pots and fluff up the medium or perhaps add a bit of fresh to what is there since I never let them go more than 6 months ...often for me it more a matter of resettling them a little deeper so air roots get into medium a bit more as the rich hulls tend to settle quite a bit in summer from heavy rains and watering ..

I never let one stay in bark any longer than it takes to get hulls ready to use because for me bark is a sure death for anything ...lol

[Royal]

Originally Posted by johnblagg

well that realy depends on what medium they are in ...

Exactly. It also depends on your growing conditions and water quality.

[orchids3]

And your cultural habits.

[Shirley]

I understand that a general rule of thumb is, if in fir bark, repot every two years; if in moss, at least every year. Seems to work for me!

[iceicebaby]

Hi thanks for the reply,let me tell you, she uses charcoal chips as medium.
They also tend to get compacted and settle down .
Slim and moss grow at the bottom of the pot.
I can conclude that not more than two years should be the time for repotting.
thanks a lot friends.
Dev

[RosieC]

I work on 2 years for bark and I think that sounds a good idea for charcole as well.

The thing to judge is how broken down it looks compared to fresh stuff. Try not to let it get completely broken down before it's repotted.

[iceicebaby]

Attaching a few pics of the pots, which shows moss and slime growth on the charcoal.

[RosieC]

I would repot once it looks like the air gaps in the medium are blocked either by slime/moss or by the medium being broken down.

I'm afraid I can't really tell from your pic, it looks OK at the top but may be too broken down lower in the pot.

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by RosieC

I work on 2 years for bark and I think that sounds a good idea for charcole as well.

The thing to judge is how broken down it looks compared to fresh stuff. Try not to let it get completely broken down before it's repotted.

That's my take as well.


However, I've realized that with the plants that I have summered outside, they will most likely need to be repotted before coming in. Otherwise I bring fungus gnats in, no matter what.