Too late to repot? Millennium witchcraft

[DirtyCoconuts]

I was at a nursery the other day to buy a cool Bromeiliead (spiked striped number with long flat leaves, super cool, $10)
They had a shade house....

Of course I walked through and found something hiding on a plat of Dendrobiums and I pulled it out to find this awesome guy. The price was exceptional (I had to ask to make sure it was not mid marked and he explained that to a LOT their customers it is all about bloom or not. I shook my head as I loaded my car )

Anyhoooooo knowing how brittle the new roots are I wiggled it out of the pot to make sure nothing looked rot-ish and then I realized I would probably be killing those new roots if I repot it’s now

Should I put it back in the plastic pot? Place this into a large pot and sphag around? Just add lava rock around it in the current pot to keep it stable and water /fert. Thanks!

[DirtyCoconuts]

No thought?

[fishmom]

OK, I'll bite. If it were mine, I would take it out and carefully place the whole mass in a pot the next size or two up. Fill in the space with the medium of your choice--I use small Orchiata for my catasetinae. If the roots are pretty long now, I'd worry about lava rock damaging them as it goes in.


Do you use sphag much in your climate? I would worry about it ever drying out, although I realize cats like their moisture.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I avoid sphag as much as humanly possibly. I use it occasionally on my mounts and for my bulbophyllum

Thank you. That is what I intend to do.

[isurus79]

That's a very awkward time to repot. Is there any way you can just pop this in a basket? That way you don't disturb the roots, but you still get additional airflow around the roots.

[mook1178]

What's the reason for repotting? By the pics, everything looks good. Do you think it will outgrow the pot it is in this season? Did you find rot when you looked at the roots?

[DirtyCoconuts]

Steve. I basically just up-potted it into a terra-cotta pot and put big ass perlite around it to stabilize

Mook the reason I want to repot is I don’t like sphagnum and I really don’t like plastic pots. It is so humid here that without air movement anything can rot so I try to avoid that for everything except the bulbophyllum

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Steve. I basically just up-potted it into a terra-cotta pot and put big ass perlite around it to stabilize

Nice! I bet it does well.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Thanks for the insight as always, sir.

To be able to tap into so many years of experience is literally, invaluable!!

[SouthPark]

DC - what I found so far - with no casualties - is the same as what you mentioned. Popping the spaghnum mass (with roots already embedded within it) into a pot, and laying a media of choice around the sides, and along the bottom.

When I water, I found no issues with heavily watering around the sides (the scoria sides). And I just put (spray) less water in the middle region of the pot - just to avoid getting the spaghnum overly wet.