Repotting from plastic to clay pot

[plumania]

I bought this plant from Waldor Orchids (New Jersey company) at Redland show, labelled as Lc. C.G. Roebling 'beachview' coerula (C. Gaskelliana x L.Purpurata). Huge plant from my standard and seller said needs repotting. Flowers are gone by now. It was in5-6 inch plastic pot and plant was crawling out of pot in couple of places.. It took lot of effeort to take the plant out of pot,ultimately had to cut off the pot .Roots were very tightly wound up around media. I took off what I could without damaging roots and repotted in 8 inch clay pot for orchids .
Questions-
1.Any problem if I transfer from plastic to clay pot?
2.Do you have to take all the previous media out? It did not look unhealthy or rotten and roots were too tightly wound up. Only way to remove old stuff was to force the roots open.....I did not force them.
3. Should I treat it as Cattleya or different?
Thanks.

[pipsxlch]

I'm no expert, but maybe this can help...
1. I ONLY grow in clay when i use pots; I always repot new purchases that are in plastic soon afterwards. I have never had an issue. In our climate (I'm only a couple hundred miles from you), clay is much more forgiving of the heat and moisture so the plant will thank you.
2. Unless the plant was obviously repotted just before I purchased it AND the mix is of a type i also use, I remove all the old mix. The plant can handle having some of the old roots untangled and cut off better than rotting mix in the middle. One place I am sometimes lazy is if it is in an inorganic/LECA type mix, since these don't break down (try them if you haven't they're great!). I know that one of these days I'm going to do that though and there'll be rotting old roots in the middle to bite my butt.
3. Grows just like a regular catt, should love what you have to offer in SF.

[plumania]

Thanks.Plant was clearly needing repot and was also recommended by seller. Roots are circling like a potbound plant and quite healthy.
Do you recommend cutting the roots to get the old mix out?

[tucker85]

That's a beautiful orchid. I was talking to the guy at the Waldor Orchids booth and I think I saw your orchid there on Friday morning.
1. Moving an orchid from plastic to clay won't cause any problems. Clay works well for tall cattleyas because it's heavy and won't fall over easily.
2. I try to get all the old medium out even if I have to cut some roots to do it. If it was growing in rock medium you can probably leave it but if the medium was bark, I would go back and redo it and try to get the old medium out.
3. Grow it just like any other cattleya.

[plumania]

Thanks. Will follow advise from both of you.
Editing to add-
Removed all the old stuff....had to remove some roots to get to old media. Whew.....that was not easy.....Brought it inside to repot because I did not want mosquitoes biting me. Now it is in new media in a clay pot. Yaaay.

[BettyE]

Since I'm lazy. I have most of my cattleyas in LECA. I use plastic pots which I cut holes & slits into the bottom & sides. I also like the fact that the roots don't stick to the sides of the plastic pots. The re-potting is sooooooooo easy with LECA; I just pull the orchid out of the pot, clip off any dead roots and re-pot into wet, new LECA. The orchids never seem to skip a beat...BettyE

P.S. Almost forgot to mention that I sterilize the LECA in my bar-b-que at 350degrees for an hr. so that I can re-use it.

[plumania]

BettyE,That is a good tip. I would consider this with next orchid. My plant has recovered from shock of re-potting and grew new roots. It is in a coarse orchid mix.

[nlm2951]

Hello. I just had the same problem. My was so overgrown, that the roots were inside the leaves, its a mini cat, I have to brake the small clay pot , piece by piece, I divided it and into (4), two are mounted, the others two are in clay pot with leca, and the mother still big, never notice the roots going crazy and didn't have my glasses on. I don't like to do that, but there was not choice, it was to much.