To repot of not to repot...that is my question...
 

Evening OB!!
Story first...
Last week I went down to South Carolina to visit my parents, so I said to myself while I am down here I guess I'll buy some orchids. Well I did...10.. I bought 10 orchids and one of them is a giant (in my opinion). And a plus is that it has a tag...yay!!

The name of it Phal. I-HSIN Victoria Pink 49325 302012 it is potted in sphagnum moss at the moment and like it says up at the title should I repot it?? Its giving me nice blooms and I know there is some controversy about repotting while they r in bloom.

So I came up with a plan if its a bad idea to repot it.
Water it about once a month or until it is dried all the way and spray the underside with a very very week solution of orchid fertilizer till watering.
Is it a good plan??

Thank you all for reading my post.

Well I know....nothing.............nothing...........that is from some move but I am drawing a blank at the moment. My 1 cent I would probably leave it, and if you can cut some slits in the pot so more air can get to the roots. Then be very careful about watering it.

I have some of the just add ice orchids granted they are the mini's and so they are easier to dry out. I really think it will help if you can cute some air slits. I do this.

I think you could remove a good bit of the moss and put it in bark without doing any damage to the spikes, phals are very tough and tolerant....and put it on a normal watering routine...keeping it in moss and only watering once a month is asking for trouble...the numbers on the tag really have no meaning to anyone but the original breeder....good luck!

Here r some pix of the beautiful monster.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t..._230912679.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t..._230922595.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t..._230947760.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t..._231005758.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t..._231017036.jpg

Wow that is a monster. Very pretty.

Ok just after I took the pix I gently made air slots.

---------- Post added at 11:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 AM ----------

I'll try doing that here tonight.

A skewer in the media is very helpful for monitoring moisture.

I purchased a phal like this a few months back. Also a monster, packed tight in spaghnum moss. I waited a week for it to dry out a bit, then watered it by soaking it for 15 minutes. That made it easy to pull the whole mass of root and moss out of the pot and reach into the center of the pot at the bottom and start pulling out moss with my finger tips. I removed a pile of moss that was about half of what was in the pot... and I still had way too much moss when I was done. I've left it like that though, until it finished blooming so that I wouldn't stress the plant too much.

It finished blooming a week or so ago and the plant is still doing well. As soon as the spike dies back, I'll repot.

Hope this helps!

These are epiphytes and as such don't need the moss/bark/chc. You can safely remove the moss from the roots by starting at the bottom center of the root ball and carefully remove the moss a little at a time. Don't just yank it out. Carefully remove the moss strand by strand working from the bottom center and work up and out. Be careful not to damage the roots too much and the flowers will be just fine. If you want to leave it in the pot, just spray the upper part of the pot. Spray the roots and upper moss. The lower parts of the root mass don't need anymore water. Don't drown the poor thing.

I do find it strange when the professionals use moss on a big scale and then we start panicking wanting to remove it. There is nothing wrong with quality moss. I have a Phal tetrapis C1 that I was going to remove from this moss, I am glad I didn't now because it is thriving.

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