When someone says an orchid “likes to be pot bound”.....

[DirtyCoconuts]

This idea confounds me and I truly am lost to even interpret what this could possibly even try to mean

First off, pot bound, to me, describes when a terrestrial plant has put grown the size of its pot, started to root into the pot which leads to the dying of those root tips and the (often) eventual demise of the plant

Second, in nature, NO orchid grows in a pot?!? So how could one grow best in a tiny pot?

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question but I have heard it said so often and I simply don’t get it. The majority of my botanical knowledge is pretty primitively rooted as it comes from “old county” grandparents and county friends so I am sure there are holes that any academic could drive a truck through but I don’t get it so please ‘splain it to me