when to repot?

[mattryan]

being new here i have another ? I have 4 noid phals that did very poorly after i repotted them..whether it was changing from moss to bark or overwatering i almost killed all of them. Three i manage to save they are all growing new leaves and roots. Now my question is when do you repot? The pooress of them bunch had started a new root and it stopped 1 inch long maybe. It started to grow another root 1 1/2 inches but looks like it stalled did i repot too soon? I have since taken it out of the bark and it is suspended over a glass in my small greenhouse...hoping it will put out more roots. Any advice would be great thankyou

[johnblagg]

I repot in spring as soon as they can be left outside and in fall just before I bring them inside ....but I dont use bark or spagh I use rice hulls and its very easy to do and I have all I can use for free ...When did you repot yours ...

I realy never have much problem anytime with repoting mine if I feel something is amis ...

[RosieC]

I've sometimes had problems and not others. I think they have a problem when the medium they used to be in is very different to the new medium in it's water retention.

I had the bigest problems though when I bought the medium from my local garden center. I almost killed 3 phals using it. I came to realise later than it was already decayed when I bought it and was far to 'soil like'. I think that local non-orchid specialist stores have too low a turn over and don't store it correctly so it decays before you buy it.

Once I started using a quality medium from an orchid specialist (online) I found I got much better results, and even those that slightly sulked after repotting still did not get anywhere near dying as a result. I think that the cost of the postage is worth it for the fact that it is so much better quality.

I repot spring, summer & autumn (what you call fall in the USA) and try and avoid winter because the plants go fairly dormant at that time. I try and avoid repoting when in spike or flower but it is not always possible to avoid and so far I've had no problems when I have had to do it then.

[mattryan]

sry i should have been more specific. This is 1 of my sick phals. It originally had just 2 leaves and no roots so i put it in my greenhouse and it grew 2 roots and a leaf, so i potted it up in bark but it looks like it has stalled so i unpotted it today and put back in the greenhouse. Was i too early to have potted it back up..how long should you wait? It has taken me literally months to get it to grow what is has...don't want to kill it Thankyou for any help


p.s. homemade greenhouse...whatever works eh! lol

[Swamper]

So you grew 2 roots and a leaf that's awesome. You should be telling us how. I think you must have learned a lot about that orchids likes and dislikes. So if and when you do repot it try to copy the same conditions with adjustments.
If you watered it every other day outside the medium then you would need to water it less in bark or something similar.
You don't even HAVE to repot it at all.

[mattryan]

Thankyou so much...but everything i learnt was from here lol..I just kept it over a cup suspended over moss in my greenhouse..spritzed roots everyday and left top off for a bit..so it got air flow. I don't have access to rooting hormone that everyone uses here so i used some from a garden center. I don't think it worked very good. It has taken me atleast 5 months to get to this. If i change it over to bark after i get lots of roots will they die? I have never mounted an orchid before and not sure if up here in ontario canada i could do it? Maybe someone from up bthis way could let me know if it can be done in colder climates? Thankyou all

[Swamper]

If you change it over to bark and water with the same frequency as when it's free hanging..."so it got air flow" then you will probably rot it. No medium - needs water every day. Bark medium needs less water. In my area it would probably get enough with once a week watering (in bark medium). I use LECA in some orchids for medium and water every 3 days.
I know it's confusing but it's really pretty simple.

[mattryan]

Thankyou for your response..i'm sure you've all answered these questions a million times..I know from searching the posts that there is a rule for potting up keiki's is there a minimum for a recovering phal? I am going to leave it unpotted (like i had it,til it stalled) and hope for more roots. Sorry for all these newbie questions..i just love these plants and have put alot of effort into this particular one. Only 1 lost to orchid heaven outta 19 so i learning and thankyou all.

[RosieC]

I would repot in a tiny tiny tiny pot... FAR smaller than the one it's suspended over, probably a 1-2" pot if you could get hold of one, a small food container with holes made in the bottom can also be used.

I had one I was keeping in a similar way to you suspended over a pot and watering every day. It grew slowly like yours. I then tried it in various pots with bark and had lots of problems with the bark not drying (it only had about the same amount of roots as yours) so I had to water very infrequently. I had it in various conditions like this for about a year (a total of 18 months including the time suspended over a pot).

This spring I put it in a tiny tiny pot with fine bark mix. It dries within a couple of days and I water it whenever it is dry... and it now has masses and masses of roots. I'm going to have to put it in a bigger pot soon and it's actually in flower right now with 6 flowers and 2 unopened buds.

[RosieC]

The rule about keiki's relates to removing it from it's parent. It gets energy from the parent and you want to wait till the roots are long enough to support it on it's own.

If you have one with damaged roots then the length of the roots does not make much difference because it's already having to support it's self with no parent to help.

From my experience I would pot it in to a tiny pot straight away as I've found mine did best that way.