Transparent pot
 

Hi again. I have one question for you. I' ve bought a Phal 2 months ago, in an opaque plastic pot. Ever since I got it I wanted to repot it in a transparent one, so that I could easily see the entire root system, but those are very hard to find here. I recently visitied a garden center which had some pots from the orchids that died, so they gave me some pots. Today I decided to move the plant into a new pot, transparent. So I cut the bottom of the pot, then cut the sides and gently put it in the new pot, then taking out the pieces of the old pot. The plant has sooo many healthy green roots, which I haven't disturbed, since I never removed the potting medium. I was wondering, since my phal is in bloom, with all of the flowers opened for 2 months, will this affect the plant and cause it to loose the flowers? Thanks for any advises. Gabi Borza.

Most Phals don't seem to mind a re-pot even while in bloom. Some won't even drop a bloom, some may drop a couple blooms. One of mine recently repotted - a sequential bloomer that had been blooming several months already - the branches on the spike did start to wither after re-potting. But, it has already started a new spike! This plant has been the exception in my experience tho - other phals I have re-potted while blooming and the blooms were fine after.

Thanks for the answer, WhiteRabbit. I didn't do a "classic" repotting, since I haven't removed any of the medium from the old pot. Just cut it's bottom, sides, squeezed it into the other pot and removed the cutted sides, so the medium was never removed from the roots or from between them. I hope it will be ok.

What medium is it growing in?

What medium is it growing in?

I grow all of my phals in pine bark, with a little bit of polystyrene on the bottom of the pot, for a better drainage. I don't like shpagnum at all. And my plants seem to love it too. I've repotted one of them a couple of weeks ago, expecting many dead roots, but to my surprise, there were 3 dead roots, the rest were green and healthy!!

Many people burn holes into plastic deli containers and use them for pots. What you did is referred to as "potting up" rather than a whole repotting.