PLACING MY 4" ORCHID POT

[Shawna]

I was just wondering if I could place a 4" pot and all into a bigger pot. Would I need to cut slits on the sides of the smaller pot? This probably has already been discussed. I don't want to take it out of its original container yet but the new pbulbs are hanging way over the container. I was thinking I could just fill the space with bark.

[Leafmite]

Is the bark in the small pot new and in good condition? What type of pot? I always do the repot if the orchid is in bark and a solid plastic pot (I use mostly lava rock/basket pots) as I, personally, never seem to have much luck with bark or solid plastic pots.

[tucker85]

Yes you can place your 4" pot in a larger pot. Both the 4" pot and the larger pot should be appropriate orchid pots with lots of drainage holes. What you're doing is called potting-up, in contrast to re-potting. It's a technique often used for cattleyas when you don't want to disturb the roots of the orchid. Like Leafmite said, you don't want to leave the orchid in the original mix if it's badly deteriorated. Another version of potting-up is to remove the old pot and place the entire rootball in a larger pot and fill new mix in around it.

[Shawna]

It is a cattelya in a 4" round green pot you normally buy orchids in. The bark is still pretty good. I bought it at the nursery last Saturday. It looks like it is in Orchiata bark. I just have regular course fir bark. I just don't want to disturb the roots and it is also flowering right now. The pot its in and the bigger pot I have all have the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot. Will the small plastic pot retain too much water with the fir bark around it? I guess that was my question on slitting the sides of the smaller pot?

---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 AM ----------

Tucker,
Thanks for letting me know what this kind of potting is called. I was goggling yesterday for something but what I was saying was not getting me the results I was looking for

[silken]

I would want to slit the sides. If it were mine, I would wait till its done blooming, then carefully remove it from the original pot and set it in the larger one. If it is Orchiata, it should last somewhat longer than regular bark and you wouldn't need to disturb it unless you see bad roots in the centre.

Cattleyas don't usually bloom for months on end like Phals so there should be no harm in waiting till it is done blooming. And it won't upset the plant to re-pot it if it needs it.

[Shawna]

Yes. I would just normally re-pot it but it is so healthy looking I just didn't want to disturb the roots. Which would be better between the pots
fir bark, lava rock or hydroton? I have all three of these.

[The Orchid Boy]

I don't really like "potting-up" but if you're going to do it, I'd use lava rock between the pots.