Cyc jean E Monnier, when to start water
 

Hi I recently picked up a Cyc Jean E Monnier from SVO. I understand that it's best not to start watering until the roots are a few inches long, but how am I supposed to know how long they are without taking it out of the sphagnum and totally repotting? can one correlate the size of the new PB with the size of the roots beneath?

Hopefully the attached pics show what's going on. There are a what appear to be a few new roots developing, that are maybe 1/8 inch long at the time. Of the newly developing PB, the bigger one is ca. 1 inch long

Thanks

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http://www.orchidboard.com/community...s/IMG_0701.JPG

Just wait until the roots are about 5 cm (2 inches) long and start slowly to water it... increase gradually!

Normally, you can easily see how long the new roots are, as with 5 cm, they are not deep enough in the medium!

There is no correlation between the size of the PB and the new roots!

Now, as for your plant, that sphagnum since to be a bit old. I would suggest to repot this plant this year. (before the roots are longer, as they are easily broken!)

Thanks Ramon! I should still wait until the roots are ~5 cm long to repot, right?

I think what he meant was repot the plant BEFORE the roots get any longer to avoid damaging them.

Personally at this point I wouldnt mess with the plant. They can be a little sensitive at this stage in my expereince.

I have 2 about the same stage as yours . After the leaves fall I un-pot mine and leave it in the empty pot until new growth starts then they are potted in new moss barely damp , have to be careful of keeping them wet will rot at the base . When I re-pot the moss is kept a little on the low side more can be added when the roots are longer by that time roots are deeper in the moss and can be kept moister . Hope this helps a little :)

The idea is to repot before the roots get too long. I tend to repot mine when the new shoots come and when the roots tips start peaking out. The other thing to do is to also stake the newly repotted plants, which means that they won't wobble in the new pot. That should help root development and avoids that new roots get damaged when you move the pot to check what is going on.

I attached a picture of my recently repotted plants.

Lars what are they potted in ? looks like clay pellets . Gin

I am following a slightly modified version of PET culture which Ramon pointed me too. This is not yet tried and tested and is a response to growing my plants in substrate that dried to quickly in the past.

The bottom 1/4 of the pot is filled with 2-4mm hydroleca, then comes a layer of epiweb and then CHC (Cocunut hisk chips) mixed with perlite. In larger pots I put a little epiweb into the CHC up to 3/4 of the height of the pot to create air pockets in the substrate. The idea is that this prevents the CHC from staying soggy, which is possible in big pots.

The general idea of the culture is that the pots can stand in saucers of water or another type of reservoir during summer. The epiweb isolates the main substrate (CHC) from the water reservoir and prevents rotting.

I have tested part of that theory and indeed the CHC stays dry when the bottom of the pots are in water. And I left a little of watter in the trays during warm weather after repotting. This should in theory help root development as the roots are drawn towards the moisture. But again this is not proven.

Very interesting method please keep us updated on the final outcome sounds like a good plan Thank You for the Info. :)

Keep an eye out on the right side of the new growth. It appears to me that there might be another new growth starting.