Repotting Gripes!! Sound off here with me!
 

Hey everyone!!

Everyone has gone out of flower now and started new growths, so it is time to repot!
I repotted five orchids last night, and I have several things to COMPLAIN about what nurseries have done to these precious and beautiful plants:

1- Dendrobium kingianum- from Matsui -
I unpotted my "Jadzia Dax" and inspected her roots. She was potted in promix. Upon lightly squeezing the media, it all fell away from the plant, revealing a SUPER TIGHT root ball that had just been pulled out of an old pot and plopped into a new pot, just placing more promix around it! It was still perfectly shaped like a solo cup!!

2- Odontonia Papageno "Mi Amour" - from Larry's Orchids-
I let this one bloom and didn't check the roots very closely. It looked like it was potted properly in good bark media, so I let it go for a while. Boy oh boy what a mistake!! ALL the roots were dead because some dingus just left a foam core about 1 inch in diameter in the center of the plant! Gross! Now I'm going to have to recover it for a year... sigh...
Shame on you, Larry!

3- NOID white miltoniopsis - from Matsui -
Nothing too spectacularly bad, but there was a dang ball of sphagnum packed tightly as could be immediately underneath the base of the plant.

Nothing has topped the plant full of baby earwigs that I brought home last summer, though, and I hope nothing will!

Have you found anything absurd/upsetting/disgusting when you were repotting a plant?

Not yet. As soon as mine are out of bloom, I'll let you know! Not looking forward to repotting my Phal. violacea. It looks like it has been in that pot for some time!

I just bought a mini Cattleya at a show a few weeks ago and, upon taking it out of the pot, I discovered no healthy roots. I soaked it for a while just to be certain but, no, they were all quite dead. I am not too worried, though. I have been through this before...many times. I filled the basket pot up with LECA and staked the Cattleya on top. It has new growths at various stages so it will be perfectly fine by autumn. As I really like the little Cattleya, I am still very happy that the vendor offered it. :)

To be honest, I hate re-potting orchids from bark mixes. Pulling the little pieces of bark off the roots is quite irksome. I wish all orchids came potted in LECA.

Was it blc. Your mine?
Mine had no roots when I repotted.

Those problems you list are just how mass producers function. Those noids would be a lot more expensive if they had to take the time to remove the sphag the seedling plants grew in. I also dislike this practice, but now I know that all mass produced onc alliance plants are potted like that, I repot as soon as I get them. This is part of the reason I prefer to get my orchids at specialist growers....

It was the Blc. Your Mine The roots were long gone by the time I bought it (I did the 're-potting' that evening).

I recently received some onc. types from a fellow forum member that he had gotten at a big box. It looked like they were planted in potting soil and had that same foam piece in the middle. The root were in really good shape otherwise.

Astrid asks...
Have you found anything absurd/upsetting/disgusting when you were repotting a plant?

I HATE it when I repot, thinking I am doing it good and then it SULKS for MONTHS.....

I think you're missing the point of my desire to complain with other people, haha

Oh but I fully agree with the complaining! I know I have to repot those plants ASAP, which I don't necessarily feel like doing. So its a complaint.

Seems like whatever I write these days on OB gets understood the wrong way...

Well you were being so reasonable in saying "Oh the nurseries have to do it this way because..."

What a rational, calm response!! So far from grumpy complaining!! :biggrin:

You just have to improve the indignant, outraged quality in your complaints!! :)

Ok, so I should have said: I understand that they do it this way because bla bla bla, but oh how I hate their #§%x# (insert preferred swear word here) way of repotting!

One of my biggest complaints (and I'm to blame unfortunately) is deciding to repot some orchids, start doing it, realize I planned too many plants for the amount of mix I have on hand (or don't have the right pot for a plant), and having to split my repotting session into 2 parts. I should buy larger quantities of bark and sphag to save myself this headache....

I make all my own pots from soup containers and plastic cups, and I hate hate to drill all the holes in them! I don't have any real powertools so it takes me ages, and recently I repotted about 5-6 plants!!

I hate running out of mix, too.

I think, "I'd rather spend my $20 on a beautiful new orchid, not potting mix!!!" ...but naturally you must have potting media to maintain all the orchids you buy! It's like when I want to buy clothes instead of food haha

Astrid, use a nail and get it hot and you should be able to put holes in the pots fairly quickly. Use ventilation though.

I always repot immediately.
Usually nothing too surprising is found, although once i found a sock? in a pot. the roots were really nice though.

I think that you should never let the plant finish blooming before you repot it because roots and other plant parts can rot surprisingly quickly and you don't know what could be in the pot

One time I had to repot an Oncidium-thing out of a bunch of pillbugs, but that was kinda my own fault for keeping the pot on the ground where they could get in.

Now, something that was not my fault, I once got a clearance Phal that turned out to have some sort of freaky gross orange ball fungus on one of the roots.

Also it's really annoying when I'm totally convinced that something REALLY NEEDS to be repotted and then find out after doing so that it really didn't. I'm trying to work on developing a better sense of when to repot things.

I don't have anything that gets that hot!! I have to wait until I have my own kitchen... *sigh*

I would love to do that method, but I can't for now.

---------- Post added at 02:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 PM ----------

A sock?
Amazing.

They were just out of packing peanuts that day??

I repotted my Psychopsis and found a nasty, crumbling piece of furniture foam in the center. I had no idea that was there, all I could see was the bark.

Yeah, they put those weird pieces of foam in the middle. I am sure seedlings like all that moisture, but then they just leave it there in the core when they upsize the pot of the plant!!

That's what's left me with a completely rootless odontonia... that damn icky crumbly foam!!

---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 PM ----------

Welp, you've just shamed me into repotting two of my blooming orchids!!!
...and guess what I found! More mossballs!!

But you know what? The roots were looking very healthy.

Healthy roots = Happy plant!
:)

Astrid:

Heat a nail over a candle perhaps? I take it you are in a dorm situation.....bare essentials, huh?
Yeah, it sucks to get strange things or bad surprises in with new orchids - I once got one that, when I went to repot it, the bottom of the pot was filled with regular driveway gravel, but the seller was a small time guy that was selling from his "hobby collection" just to make a little money on the side.
Yes, foam "peanuts" or chunks are often used in the commercial greenhouses to cut costs, but then again, that is how you can afford to purchase the NOIDs so cheaply, so it is what it is.
If I buy an orchid in bloom and in pure moss, I don't really "attack" the root ball, but I will take it out of the pot, set it down in another pot and just fill in around the sides with pine bark. This allows the moss to dry out enough that I don't rot it and if there is a black mess down there I know I have to sacrifice the blooms for the sake of the plant and will get aggressive with the roots.
I would notify the sellers of the issues you have, but you will probably hear "that the only way I can sell them at any reasonable price", so it is hard to argue with that.
And I have had the same "not enough potting mix, or enough pots" scenario many times and yes, it is frustrating as it gets..... especially when you are all "primed" to re-pot. I just try to keep some on hand like milk in the fridge, but I totally understand the "exciting new orchid vs. boring old potting mix" struggle many of us go through.
Ahhhh orchids - why do we do this to ourselves?:roll:

I have just finished repotting 100 Cattleyas & Dendrobiums.

I hate having to get everything ready for a major repotting project (tools, bleach solution, Bayer dip, fungicide dip, stakes, ties, pot clips, big bark mixture, medium bark mixture, sterilized sphag, label maker) only to discover that the label maker is out of juice and label tape.

Thankfully I didn't run out this time until the very end.

All I can say is......:bowing:bowing:bowing:bowing:bowing:bowing :bowing:bowing:bowing:bowing:bowing:bowing!

Yeah we are not even allowed to have candles because this isn't really housing as much as it is a glorified adult daycare center... DANG DORM LIVING!!!!

I always attack the root ball. I just dig in with my acrylic fingernails and start picking picking picking! My ex nicknamed me "picky" for a reason.. I love to dig and poke and prod everything! Repotting in that regard is kind of fun for me.

We do it because orchids have evolved to develop mystical hypnotic powers over people. Ever heard of that parasite cats have that make humans more drawn to them (~supposedly~)? Well obviously orchids have it, too!! :rofl:

Sigh, all this is not helping me get my myself in gear for all the repotting I need to do. I keep putting it off and now I feel even more like doing :coverlaugh:

I have some I should have repotted when I bought them that need doing, plus as I grow more in moss these days I have all the ones in that to redo this year. Some of the ones in bark also need redoing this year. I like to do it in the spring and it feels like a daunting task coming up...

So I'm sure I've have some to rant about soon :coverlaugh: