Who said Masdevallia don't have big root systems - I beg to disagree ;)

[ronaldhanko]

Wonderful growing, Rosie.

[bethmarie]

That is spectacular, Rosie!

I've always been a plant lover, but pretty much abandoned other plants for orchids a few years ago. Before, it was all foliage, foliage, foliage. Never gave much thought to roots, besides trying not to drown them. I thought it was weird when I first starting growing orchids to see so much of the plant's roots, and I was always trying to get aerial roots to go into the medium. Orchids eventually converted me. Now I swoon over roots like the ones in your picture. And I'm seriously impressed by the excellent growing it takes to produce them.

[GardenTheater]

Wow, just found this post. Amazing!!! Definitely will repot into clay.

[The Orchid Boy]

Hopefully I get roots like these someday... Mine have been in hokey clay pots for 3-6 months and I already see improvement. Excited for repotting time...

[Tindomul]

Nice and healthy looking, congrats!

[The Orchid Boy]

I had to come back & say that I see roots poking out of the holes in the clay pots. Yay! One question, did the roots stick to the clay really bad?

One thing I've found- never put a phrag in clay. Their roots stick like CRAZY to plastic and I can't imagine what they'd do in clay . Just my two cents.

[jeremyinsf]

I've had to crack pots before with Masdevallia's because they were overgrown and stuck. It's not usually the case, but it can happen. Either that, or I just wasn't patient enough

Usually a good soak and I can loosen them up.

[Bolero]

Of course they have large ones. Mine always developed healthy roots sytems like yours although yours is pretty good.

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by The Orchid Boy

I had to come back & say that I see roots poking out of the holes in the clay pots. Yay! One question, did the roots stick to the clay really bad?

One thing I've found- never put a phrag in clay. Their roots stick like CRAZY to plastic and I can't imagine what they'd do in clay . Just my two cents.

I've not had them stick, they sometimes have needed some encouragement, this one had a few roots outside as well as inside the pot last time I re-potted, but everything came loose and didn't seem to be stuck enough to damage the roots.

---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 PM ----------

Thanks everyone, this guys is sitting happily in it's big pot in the corner of my Masdie section in the greenhouse. It almost looks like a mother hen with it's smaller chicks. There are about 15 flowers on long spikes on it