Do you repot right away?
 

I am curious. Do you repot your new orchids right away when you bring them home? Or do you wait for the blooms to fall before repotting?

I had a vendor at the garden/orchid show tell me to wait until they finished blooming, but have been noticing that many folks prefer to repot right away.

If I repot right away, do I need to cut the flower spikes (this makes me cringe)? If I don't, will the blooms survive the repotting?

Thanks for your advice. Ya'll are the best! I love learning from you guys.

It is really a matter of personal preference on when to repot I think.

I prefer to repot when I get a new plant home for a few reasons:
1. You never know what may be in the center of the roots ( I had a plant that I thought was in pure bark, that when I repotted it I found a nasty piece of furniture foam in the center).
2. It may be potted in a medium that you do not like, or are uncomfortable growing in.
3. The medium may be old and rotting.

I do not know what kind of plant you have, but Phalaenopsis AKA moth orchids are pretty good about being repotted in bloom. I usually look at the health of the roots to determine if I will leave the flower spike attached. If you end up cutting the flowers, you can put it in a vase with a little sugar added to make them last a bit longer.

If it came from a reputable grower and I have a history of clean and healthy plants with them=then I don't repot. But store bought Phals even at the height of their blooms= I repot immediately before I let them join the others on the windowsill....why would you cut the flowers? I repot even if the orchid plant is in bloom....I even repotted a flowering Miltoniopsis in S/H and it just carried on as if nothing happened.

Orchidgirl and Bud offer reasons why I would repot. At minimum, I un-pot and inspect the plant. Healthy spikes can handle that.

Remember, a spike full of blooms is not an indicator of health. Blooms happen on rotted roots, too.

I was repotting my orchids after a week of having them. Now I don't. I Pull them out of the pot and check the roots. If they look good I leave them alone. I am kind of doing an experiment. seeing how the ones I repotted right away do compared to the ones I am not repotting.

If the plant is in bad shape I will repot as soon as I bring it home. If the plant is Root bund I will repot.

I too have repotted in full bloom and never had any problems. As long as the plant has a healthy root system your plant will be fine to repot even in bloom.

From a slightly different perspective:

I buy few plants in bloom, but rather groups of seedlings (so I get a selection to choose from). Those plants are commonly in 2" seedling pots, so they usually need repotting fairly quickly.

IF they are in a mix that works for me.
AND the mix is sound
AND they are OK in that pot size,
then I leave them alone.

In most cases, and in particular plants from Hawaii, they are in some mix/pot combination that does not work for me, so I usually repot right away. That way I can give them the same treatment as the rest of my plants.

I'm with Kim on this.

Pot/Potting media combinations should be based upon how it fits with one's own growing conditions and watering habits to meet the needs of the particular plant.

Sometimes, when I get things in for resale that are in-spike or bloom, I'll "baby" them as-is, because changing them over to something that works better in my conditions doesn't mean it's right for my customers' conditions, and why stress the plant twice?

Another reason that hasn't been mentioned and what always will make me repot is if I see the orchid has arrived with travelers. I don't want pest in my collection so I repot if I see any signs of possible infestation.

I repot immedietly if the orchid comes in tight fitting spaghum moss. If it comes in bark, and the bark looks good, I will wait for awhile. I have bought orchids that come in lava rock. They come from an unknown hawaiian vendor and I only buy them in one store. They never need to be repotted, they just need to be put in a bigger pot When the time comes.

So, I guess my answer is, "it depends."

I usually do unless I like the medium and the vendor told me that the plant is recently repotted, like neofinetias in moss mount