to repot or not

[oscar freak]

I have a phal in a coarse bark mix in a pot for 3 years now,it was my 1st orchid and very near and dear to me.its getting quite big now growing at a bit of an angle I think the coarse bark its not strong enough to hold it up.its also in a bit of an ugly pot a plastic one that I cut wholes in for air circulation.i want to do right by the plant with a repotting but problem is it will not stop flowering its in almost continual bloom if these latest blooms last till March it will be a full year in bloom.should I leave well enough alone?

[Orchid Whisperer]

You can repot Phalaenopsis at any time, blooming or not. If I buy an in-bloom Phalaenopsis, I repot right away and it never hurts the flowers.

You say it is growing at an angle. Some Phals just do this (you can't really correct this, it is what the parent species did in the wild; grow sideways).

I am concerned that you say the bark is too coarse to support the plant. If the plant is too loose in the pot, that means you have at least some dead roots in the pot, and they are not gripping the pot tightly. Try (gently) to lift the plant only by the flower stem, or by the stem beneath the leaves. If the roots are not tightly gripping that pot, no slippage or movement, it is time to repot. It will be pretty evident which roots are dead, which are alive and what can be safely removed.

When you repot, stay with coarse medium. Try switching to an unglazed terracotta pot, the smallest one in which you can fit the roots. I find Phals are far happier in these pots than in plastic.

[oscar freak]

its been in the pot for 3 years now and its definitely not loose in the pot,as it was my first orchid I was worried about overwatering so I opted for large bark chips and thought maybe this is why it was growing skew.im so scared to fix something if it aint broke,people always ask me is it real cause everytime they visit its in flower.

[jkofferdahl]

I agree with all of what OW said. Phals grow where they want to grow. Three years in a pot is a long time, and it's likely that a lot of the bark inside the pot has broken down. If I use plastic pots then they are basket pots, which allow gobs of air to the roots and dry the material quite quickly, but also encourage absurd root growth; for Phals I prefer either terra cotta or to mount. Phals, even in bloom, tolerate a repotting any time, so now's as good as any. In my experience Phals like to be slightly pot-bound and so I tend to use the smallest pot the roots will comfortably fit into.