Phal has overgrown ceramic pot- break it or let it ride

[DirtyCoconuts]

I have had this Phal for 3-4 years and it is a great grower and it has totally taken over this pot- there is no media inside anymore, just roots- the plant is still thriving but it is clearly growing out of the pot.

I do not believe that i can remove it without causing great damage even if i were to soak it for a while....

so, would you leave it alone? sink this into a larger pot and backfill around it? break this and clean out what i can?

Morchids by

Orchids by

[Ray]

[DirtyCoconuts]

Lol hammer time huh, ray?

I was thinking of doing it in a tub of water. That way I can leave most of the big shards with the plant but the small bits and dust is in the water? Thoughts?


Ideally I’d have the whole pot in a much more malleable form and then drop the whole shebang into a larger pot, treat the broken ceramic as more media

---------- Post added at 10:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 PM ----------

I got up close with my headlamp and there is still some bark in there. Not sure that makes a difference when it is basically trying to walk out of the pot

[SouthPark]

Could get best of both worlds. Hack into as much of the top layers a possible, so that you get the phal out with at least some roots. So the phal can start over again, and keep surviving. Then, whatever remains in the pot ----- use cutters, or metal tin-snips or whatever to cut and dig out whatever remains in the pot. That's if you want to keep the pot (and not break it).

[DirtyCoconuts]

Good call. I don’t particularly want to destroy the pot

[Ray]

If you leave the pot intact, you will also be leaving behind a fair amount of old potting medium. It will decompose, compress and cause the roots in the pot to die and rot.

In my opinion, if you extract the pot from the root mass and take the old medium away as well, the plant will be in much better shape to move on.

[SouthPark]

That's true Ray. What DC is going to do is to extract as much plant as he can. Then after he has done that, he's going to do some mining/digging work - to remove all the media from the pot. It could take a while, but should be able to get there eventually. The main thing is to not break the pot while doing the excavation work. Eg. too impatient and too eager, could end up stressing or cracking the pot.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I’m gonna let her finish flowering as she just decided to spit a new spike from an old inflorescence. Then I’m gonna soak it and get to digging. My hope is that the bottom roots are dead and not holding.

If it is really holding on I may reconsider and regroup

[camille1585]

If it's really stuck you could also consider trying to shake out and pry out all the old medium, and then replace it with inorganic medium like expanded clay pellets. Then you're good to go for a long time.

[Ray]

I used to be big on decorative pots, but learned that they often become sacrificial, anyway.

Now I prefer plastic pots and just put them in a decorative cover, if I see the need.