repotting or mounting C (Sophronitis) coccinea?

[Ioana]

I have 2 small C. Coccinea that I bought in clay pots with a tiny bit of sphagnum in the pot. They are growing in a vivarium (~95% humidity) but the roots have stopped growing and the pots look crowded.
I water twice to three times weekly (RO water w very dilute K-lite fertilizer, flush with pure RO about every 4 waterings). I don't know if salts are accumulating and preventing growth, or if this is a normal resting behavior.
I love these little Catts: these are the first that have grown well so far for me and I would really, really like to avoid killing them.
I'll soak them today, but after this, should I repot or mount? Should I wait for new root growth?
Thanks for any help!
Ioana

[No-Pro-mwa]

I don't have any of these but most Cattleya types you want to re-pot when the roots are growing. A picture would help.

[Ioana]

I just brought them back to work (that's where my terrarium is), will post a photo at the beginning of the week, when I go back. Thank you!

[estación seca]

Use the Search function in the top maroon menu. People here have posted about how they grow this.

[Ioana]

Thank you, I expanded my search of the forum and found some useful information, although I'm still not sure what to do. Maybe I'll bite the bullet with one of them, take it out of its pots and see what the roots inside look like tomorrow when I get back to work. At least I'll see if the roots look healthy or not, and I can go from there.

[Ioana]

So I took one out of its pot (one without roots outside of the pot). The sphagnum was packed fairly tightly around the roots, and a few of the center-most roots had rotted (most are ok). see attached:
Combining my growing conditions and the caveats posted at various places on this forum, I suspect this particular plant stayed wet too long between waterings and perhaps I had been fertilizing it a bit too much. I've decided to mount it but keep it in the terrarium where the humidity is very high, water it more often with RO water between using dilute fertilizer and see what happens.. it's got lots of new growths just no new roots.
The other one has roots on the outside of the pot that are growing (green tips), and may have less sphagnum in its pot... I didn't want to risk taking it out and breaking those roots, but I'll try flushing it out with more RO water before fertilizing: both of the clay pots had some white fuzz that may have been salt accumulation on their surfaces.
Wish me luck, and thank you for your comments!

[Roberta]

There is a new growth that will probably be doing new roots if it hasn't already, so mounting would be a good thing to do. (new root growth is critical to establishing on a mount... make sure that the new growth and roots are toward the mount) These little gems grow much better mounted in most cases unless the medium is very loose and open - they really do need to dry out between waterings, with lots of air around the roots. Sphag is OK for seedlings because they have few reserves, but this one looks like it is well on its way.

[Ioana]

Thank you for the advice!
Ioana