How to repot this Dendrobium?

[vpsihop@hotmail.com]

The progression of canes seem to be going towards the aerial roots. How do I repot this, and make room for future canes without burying or breaking the aerial roots?

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[bil]

Well, there is a problem. The roots of epiphytic orchids have a bad habit. They are so keyed to the environment that they grow in that changing things will kill them, or at the least do them serious damage.
This is why one is always advised to repot when roots start. So, when that cane was starting to put out roots, if it had been repotted, with more room, those roots would have dived into the new medium, and no matter what damage was done to the old roots, the new roots would feed and support the plant.

The logical thing would be to wait till the next roots start to form, and repot. However, you might not have that time. My question would be, how long has that been in that pot? What I can see of the medium, looks dense, packed and with moss on it.

None of that is good news. The medium should be open, so open, that it allows air to pass easily thru the medium.

So, you could make a good case for repotting it at once unless the roots will come very soon.

I am always of the opinion that an orchid should be repotted as soon as you can get it home, unless it is a variety that goes into a mad sulk for two years if repotted outside the narrow window that it considers OK.
So, do check that.

Anyway, in your shoes this is what I do. I would take it out and if that medium is as I feared, remove as much as I could and I would repot it in a shallow pot, HALF as deep and three or four times the size. (surface area.) I would put it in fine bark, with nothing added, - and don't forget to sieve the bark to get the teeny weeny bits and all the dust out.
You can try to keep the aerial roots out, but resign your self to damaging some of the roots.
In short, even if you broke all the damn roots off, (and I have had that happen,) the plant should be strong enough to wait and survive while it grows new ones, so panic not.

The secret of what to do if the roots are wrecked is to do nothing. Plant it as described, and if it wobbles use some clean stones around it to hold it in place. Then water it exactly as you normally would, and eventually it will put out a mass of roots, and when the plant is solidly held, the stones can go.

Use fertiliser in every watering, but at a very low level.

[vpsihop@hotmail.com]

Great info! This one recently came from Seattle orchids during their "as is sale" i'll see what I come up with and post a pic. The good thing is I have LOTS of little green root tips

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by vpsihop@hotmail.com

Great info! This one recently came from Seattle orchids during their "as is sale" i'll see what I come up with and post a pic. The good thing is I have LOTS of little green root tips

Then this is the perfect time to repot. It's ideal to do it just as the new roots begin to emerge, because no matter how careful you are, some of those new root tips are likely to get damaged - but if the plant is in that rooting phase, there will be more where those came from I think I would lean to medium bark rather than small... Dendrobiums tend to love good drainage, so that the root environment is damp and humid, not so wet.

Don't over-pot. You want enough room for about two - three years' growth, and since Dens are more vertical than horizontal, you don't need a huge amount of space. Pots that are too large tend to stay too wet.

[bil]

Originally Posted by vpsihop@hotmail.com

Great info! This one recently came from Seattle orchids during their "as is sale" i'll see what I come up with and post a pic. The good thing is I have LOTS of little green root tips

Thank you. The green tips on the aerial roots don't really count for much. I would be very interested to get it out and have a poke around in the root mass.

---------- Post added at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Roberta

Then this is the perfect time to repot. It's ideal to do it just as the new roots begin to emerge, because no matter how careful you are, some of those new root tips are likely to get damaged - but if the plant is in that rooting phase, there will be more where those came from I think I would lean to medium bark rather than small... Dendrobiums tend to love good drainage, so that the root environment is damp and humid, not so wet.

Don't over-pot. You want enough room for about two - three years' growth, and since Dens are more vertical than horizontal, you don't need a huge amount of space. Pots that are too large tend to stay too wet.

I don't see new roots. All I can see are aerials.
I agree, you don't want bark that is too fine, that's as bad as moss.

Overpotting is a very imprecise term. You can plant an orchid in a pot 5 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep, and it will do fine, as long as air can get to the roots, and water can get away.

The question is about the balance between media density and distance between the outside and the roots.

If you use compacted moss, then you must have a small pot, because when that moss is wet, the air just can't get in easily. If you use large open bark, it cannot hold water, and the roots can breathe easily.

I have to admit I am seeing that the very best way to keep dendrobiums is on a mount, with a pad of sphag to keep the water against the roots for long enough. The roots go crazy.
I do grasp tho that not everyone can mount orchids, but were I restricted, I would grow small dendrobiums on aquarium wood, as that would look really nice.

[Jeff214]

I hope that I'm not hijacking this post, but since we are on the topic of repotting unruly roots... I was wondering how people deal with plants that produce new shoots higher and higher up from the pot. I have a laelia and a few other catts, Blc., that will not stay in a pot... I thought about potting it so that the newest growth would be in the potting media, but then the old ones stick out.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Jeff214

I hope that I'm not hijacking this post, but since we are on the topic of repotting unruly roots... I was wondering how people deal with plants that produce new shoots higher and higher up from the pot. I have a laelia and a few other catts, Blc., that will not stay in a pot... I thought about potting it so that the newest growth would be in the potting media, but then the old ones stick out.

I have concluded that these are telling you that they really don't want to be in pots... I mount smaller Laelias, but have found that these larger ones outgrow the mount too fast. So I have settled on wood baskets... the roots seems to like to grab on to the wood, think of it as a three-dimensional mount. If the basket is square, put that oldest growth in a corner, and orient the plant toward the middle. Use the largest bark you can find. Since the large bark may not keep it stable enough, if necessary I use those eyelets at the corners of the basket as a place to attach a thin wire, the other end goes around a suitable p-bulb. Do this on 2 or 3 sides (depending on the plant), tighten them up (like guywires), and it's very stable until it gets established.

[rbarata]

I was wondering how people deal with plants that produce new shoots higher and higher up from the pot.

This is a known issue with some catts and it's called ladder effect or ladder growing and it's part of its genetics. Can't help you more than this 'cause I've read an article about how to grow/pot them but I can't find it. But I remember that one should use a rectangular shallow pot instead of a round one so that the rhizome can grow along the larger side of the rectangle (pot or tray).

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by rbarata

This is a known issue with some catts and it's called ladder effect or ladder growing and it's part of its genetics. Can't help you more than this 'cause I've read an article about how to grow/pot them but I can't find it. But I remember that one should use a rectangular shallow pot instead of a round one so that the rhizome can grow along the larger side of the rectangle (pot or tray).

If you use a square basket and put the oldest growth in the corner, you can use the diagonal dimension of the basket. Even if the plant goes somewhat upward, the roots reach down to the basket and start to wrap around it. When it eventually escapes again, it may well be going in two or more directions and use the space even more efficiently.

The growth habit is due to the fact that it evolved to grow up trees... you can't argue with Mother Nature but you can maintain some measure of control. You just need to provide an environment where the plant WANTS to utilize the container that you have put it in.

[Jeff214]

Originally Posted by Roberta

The growth habit is due to the fact that it evolved to grow up trees... you can't argue with Mother Nature but you can maintain some measure of control. You just need to provide an environment where the plant WANTS to utilize the container that you have put it in.

Thanks to both on the advise.

That makes sense why they grow the way they do - I'll look into a square wooden basket. This may not work since my apartment is so dry. I feel that they will desiccate and die like my citrus trees. Oh well, worth trying out!