Repot Unruly Catts?

[Dorchid]

Gotcha! Yeah, space is definitely at a premium and I am trying to figure what to do with the roots. Thanks for the input!

[Dorchid]

Thoughts? Pot in pot? Crack current pot with hammer and pot in pot. Soak and remove from current pot and pot in new pot/in new pot with an inverted pot in bottom? Wire in place with heavy galvanized steel wire? Is the new pot too big? It’s the smallest size I have available.

[Bayard]

I vote for pot in pot!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Dorchid

Thoughts? Pot in pot? Crack current pot with hammer and pot in pot. Soak and remove from current pot and pot in new pot/in new pot with an inverted pot in bottom? Wire in place with heavy galvanized steel wire? Is the new pot too big? It’s the smallest size I have available.

The new pot looks fine. I'd break the small pot, anything stays attached to a piece of the pot leave attached (will fit in the new pot better if you remove at least some of the old pot), plus it opens up the root zone which is highly desirable. That's why one doesn't pot directly into decorative pots, terracotta is cheap. I have done it both ways (leaving the old pot, breaking the old pot). I now prefer breaking.

[Dorchid]

Thanks, you two! I’m going to go with shattering the pot...that was my thinking exactly, Roberta.

[Dorchid]

Well, they needed that! The pots came all the way off. The one in the middle was in a plastic pot and hadn’t been repotted yet...it was severely root bound so hopefully it doesn’t sulk too hard and bounces right back as it has a new spike preparing to emerge from sheath. Used large orchiata and scoria.

[Orchid Whisperer]

With any pot, try potting with the pot only half full of medium, so the plant sits lower in the pot. The plant and roots will tend to stay in the pot, will be slower to ramble out of the pot.

Also, for Cattleya types, I really like wine corks as a growing medium. I used to exclusively use corks made from actual cork, but I've come to realize that the plastic ones may be just as good, and never rot.

[Dorchid]

Thanks for the tip! Would have been nice to have some room up top but they had a lot of root and sat at that level with about a half inch of sub on the the bottom. I’ll try to fit them better next time!