Worst repot stories! Let's bring the newbies moral up! (Primarily my own!!)

[emmajs243]

Ok guys....if it is possible to kill an orchid due to repotting trauma I am pretty sure I nailed it last night....It was my 3rd time repotting a Catt and my 1st time repotting into s/h... until now, I only had repotted phals and two Catt seedlings.....EVERYTHING that could go wrong just did! I am just so mad at myself and wish I could just take your skilled hands off of one of you and attach them to myself for ALL future repottings!!!!

Cattleyas roots are just...different from Phals it seems. I was working SO hard to be SO careful but it just didn't work! Their roots just don't seem to be as pliable as my phals you know?! AND this Catt i traumatized was also only a little seedling!!!!!

I soaked my Catt for an hour before trying to get her unpotted because I could tell she was really quite stuck In her pot. And instead of being in chunky bark, she was in shards of wood. Which was a nightmare of a mess!

I felt like i had heard how important it is to get as much of the old organic media off before reporting to s/h so it doesn't rot and clog the air holes or suffocate the plant.....Correct me if I am wrong!...Well, every single root was COVERED in wood shards that wouldn't come off! I tried soaking for longer and it didn't help. NOTHING was helping so I was gently trying to get as much as possible removed. This wasn't a couple of pieces, this was the ENTIRE root system covered with shards of stuck wood!

So while trying to get a shard off i started by snapping off an entire, healthy root. Which I was frustrated about but still was thinking "it happens, it's ok, everybody makes
Mistakes. She has lots of healthy roots so she should be ok!" ......That was Strike 1!

Strike 2 followed shortly when she had one super tiny pseudobulb/leaf, I think it was the first one. I'm talking TINY and the (excuse the lack of orchid anatomy knowledge) little part holding it connected to the other pseudobulbs was just like the size of a thread! well, you guessed it,, I was TRYING to be SO gentle and the pseudobulb just snapped clean off! This little pseudobulb only had one root coming off of it too. So there was another punch to the gut and my newest little seedling.

Strike 3 then hit like a freight train...my one constant concern was guarding the new root tips to ensure they were not "bruised" I was doing SO good and just about done when I suddenly remembered that AOS said If your Catt is stair stepping, make sure she is level when repotting instead of burying the lower pseudobulbs or leaving the higher up ones exposed so I gently grabbed the Catt and when I gave her a slight little tug up into the media, one of her new little root tips got caught against the leca and snapped half dangling there!

And just to add the icing to the cake, when all was said and done, the oldest remaining pseudobulb somehow had managed to wiggle away from its designated position at the side of the pot to leave room for new growth in the center and basically is sitting dead center in the pot!

Like WOW! Can anyone say worlds best Cattleya abuser?!? I feel SO guilty like all the orchid nursuries are going blacklist me as a customer and name me "the girl capable of destroying the healthiest orchids in one repot!" Man, like I am partially terrified to ever repot another Cattleya!!!! Or any orchid other then a Phal! I guess because I only have a few currently and I have to fight the weather to order more, they are just my prized orchids right now and I have been horrified of ruining them!

SO I decided to reach out to see if anyone is willing to look back to their beginner years of growing and share their worst repotting story/stories with me to HOPEFULLY help convince me that I truly didn't do as awful of a job as I feel!

[Leafmite]

First of all, it will be okay. Keep the medium dry for a few days so the roots can heal and they will often send new branches off of the roots whose tips have been damaged. I learned this when I was growing Angraecums and it works well for the Cattleyas, too.

I honestly hate removing bark from the roots of orchids. I do not use it at all for my orchids. My orchids are grown in red lava rock (with some eggshells added for extra Calcium).

As for bad potting experiences...I once had small, very active children and was always in a hurry and unfocused when trying to pot up orchids. I broke a Phal clean off the roots, broke off new pseudobulbs from Cattleyas, and, worst for me, broke a couple of roots of my beloved Angraecum magdalenae (in those days, people believed the mag was not just the Queen of Angraecums but also was the queen of dying after being potted so I was very panicked). Now the kids have flown the nest and I can set aside time to pot up orchids in a careful, relaxed, attentive manner.

[aliceinwl]

I got a bunch of Phals from a friend that couldn't keep them because she was moving with the promise that I'd take good care of them. They all needed to be repotted and I decided to do it in the backyard with the dogs out (I did briefly consider putting them in). I had all the Phals unpotted and cleaned up and laying on the porch when the dogs decided to come running through...

At the rate my Phals grow, I'm going to be looking at the leaf damage for the next 10 years.

I've also made the mistake of thinking that all orchid roots were like Phals and could handle the same amount of disturbance when removing old media and repotting. I had a large Zygopetalum that I did a thorough clean up on when I repotted and despite no obvious breakage, I killed all of the roots and half the pseudobulbs. The remaining pseudobulbs dropped all their leaves. This summer it managed to send up one small (maybe tiny would be the better word) new growth, but it's going to be a long road.

Now for the non-Phals if there are bits of debris stuck to the roots I leave it. I just try to get all the big clumps of old media out and minimize root handling and manipulation.

[emmajs243]

"minimize root handling and manipulation"! Now THAT needs to be a "WARNING" or "CAUTION" statement on EVERY repotting guide! Definitely need to focus on THAT next time!

Thank you Leafmire for the reassurance and advise! I will make sure I do that to help the little kiddo be ok! And oh my gosh, I cannot even IMAGINE the way you felt after breaking off a NEW pseudobulb! At least this teeny tiny one looked like it wasn't ever going to put out a flower or new growth! It was plump it was just like, SO tiny and dainty and cute! And I really loved that she had it in comparison to her other large pseudobulbs because it was like a reminder of how far she has come in such a short time! Oh I don't feel like nearly such a failure anymore but at least like it's more something everyone has to go through at one point or another! I will have to be a little bit more cautious with my Phals from now on though!!! They kinda seem unbreakable to some extent!!

(However at least you had the kids as a distraction and Alice had the pups as the excuse!) being able to place the blame elsewhere always helps cope with these type of situations!!!

And Oh my gosh alice! I would feel SO guilty just because they belonged to your friend!!!! Oh that would be terrible! However!!!! Now you have me slightly worried I may of overdone it with the cleaning and my Catt seedling will hate me forever!!!!! Oh my goodness! Orchids! Makes us crazy!

Loved hearing I am not alone guys and we all have these repots!!

[cluelessmidwesterner]

emmajs I don't have an orchid story because like you I am a newbie. When I am repotting I think about the advice my mother gave me was when she was watching me struggling for the first time to get my then newborn's arm in a sleeve. It was simply "Grasp firmly". What she meant was just because something looks delicate doesn't mean it is made of spun glass and most likely won't shatter in a million pieces. Many things are usually a lot more robust than we think they are.

[emmajs243]

Midwesterner!! Thank you for sharing! Is it bad that I would feel ten times more comfortable with a baby then an orchid repot!? And I tend to take things to extremes with worry so I was trying to tell myself that same thing while removing the majority of bark off of the roots! Then one broke off and I still thought, it should be ok, plants are resilient! And then stuff just kept breaking everywhere!! Oh it's just like my worst nightmare!!! They need hold classes for repotting! Like, in person classes!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by emmajs243

SO I decided to reach out to see if anyone is willing to look back to their beginner years of growing and share their worst repotting story/stories with me to HOPEFULLY help convince me that I truly didn't do as awful of a job as I feel!

I haven't got any bad potting experiences, but I can mention there are rooting gels and rooting mixtures for orchids - with 'auxin' in it. They can do wonders for getting orchids like catts to start producing roots fairly quickly after repots.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by emmajs243

Midwesterner!! Thank you for sharing! Is it bad that I would feel ten times more comfortable with a baby then an orchid repot!? And I tend to take things to extremes with worry so I was trying to tell myself that same thing while removing the majority of bark off of the roots! Then one broke off and I still thought, it should be ok, plants are resilient! And then stuff just kept breaking everywhere!! Oh it's just like my worst nightmare!!! They need hold classes for repotting! Like, in person classes!

The best places for potting classes are shows and orchid clubs. Most shows have seminars on basic orchid care, including potting. I have been running an orchid show for about 20 years, and I do several classes at each show. But Fascination of Orchids is far from unique... every show that I go to has classes, mostly free. And societies usually have culture classes or a meeting devoted to potting, etc on a fairly regular basis. There's nothing quite like the human interaction that you can have being in the company of orchid people.

[emmajs243]

So it likes like the state of Idaho (worst state ever for orchids.....well no that's lie, Wyoming is the worst) has A show a year! And monthly or quarterly meetings that are about three hours away but if they actually had a decent turn out, I would definitely make the drive for! I am planning on going to the Feb meeting to check it out! Other then that, I would really like to find some shows in oregon/Washington/Utah anywhere around me or really anywhere that airfare is on sale for cheap and go to some bigger shows!!! I'll definitely have to look into Fascination of Orchids and see what they have! Even if they have something in texas near family I would plan a trip all around the same time!

AND South Park! Thank you! I cannot believe you haven't had any bad repots!!!!! That's impressive! I know I use a kelp extract root stimulant....but idk that it has auxin in it! Is it ok to use overall?? Definitely something worth looking into just to help this poor catt get back on her feet! It's not like I want her to be a super orchid or anything (well I do but I can be patient!) I just want her to survive!

[Mountaineer370]

Like Roberta, I was going to suggest going to some nearby shows and attending their talks/seminars geared toward beginners, but if you're in Idaho, I can see where that might be difficult.

The American Orchid Society (aos.org), has many articles and videos that would be of help to novices. If you haven't checked out their website, you should do so.

As far as making mistakes, don't feel bad, we all do, especially those of us with little experience under our belts. You will get better at things like repotting as time goes on.

I don't really have any horror stories to share, but the first two orchids I ever repotted, which were my first two Phals, hadn't been in their new media for more than a few days before I knocked one of them over and all the new bark spilled all over the floor. Then a couple days later, I knocked the second one over. I can't say that's the last time one has fallen, but I did get more careful about where I placed them so that, if they do fall sideways, they are only going to fall inches and not feet.