Hello....waving from England :0)

[l1sav]

Evening.... and
Lisa here from over the pond in England.
I have been a regular reader on this site for some time, but thought it was about time I registered

I have 2 large phals, the rest i have are small ones of varying colours. They are all potted in bark. A few i have re-potted myself. One of them even gave me two keiki's which i have detached and potted and so far they are doing ok growing new roots. I soak them (completely dunk the pot) every 7-10 days (or when they need it) in room temperature rain water from my water butt for a while until roots are nice and green and i then let them drain. They sit on east facing windowsill away from draft & radiators.

I need some advice regarding one of my large phals.
I cant post any photo's yet to show you what I mean so will try to describe as best i can

Its not stopped flowering the whole time i have had it so its obviously happy, but it is very pot bound. I understand they like to be quite tight in the pot, but there comes a point when you have to re-pot. there is no more room in the pot it looks like its getting strangled in there.

There are masses of roots growing out the bottom of the pot as well. If I do re-pot i'm worried i will break the roots growing through the bottom of the pot. I may well have to cut the pot down the side to get it out.

Its also in full bloom at the moment on a single spike and it hasn't stopped flowering for the last 2 years and it has a new leaf growing as well. And from what i have read its best to repot when its not flowering.

Some advice would be grand.
Thanks in advance.
Lisa

[RandomGemini]

Your phal sounds happy. It's growing, blooming. I know some varieties of phals are constant bloomers, yours might be one of those.

I have repotted one phal while in bloom (I only did this a few days ago, so your mileage will vary with this advice). So far, I've just lost a couple of blooms, but otherwise the plant seems to be doing just fine. Phals are pretty forgiving, that's why I decided to try them in the first place. So I think you could probably repot while it's in bloom and be fine with it.

As far as breaking the roots when you de-pot, yeah, that can happen. If you can, try cutting the plastic pot off of the root ball and working the roots loose with your fingers. Still, when I repotted the larger phal I have, I ended up breaking a root. As long as there are plenty of other healthy roots, I think breaking one or two won't kill your plant. Just be careful not to break a bunch of them. There's a cinnamon concoction somewhere on the board here that you can put on any roots you break to prevent infection. You might want to find the recipe for that and have some ready for when you go to repot.

Welcome to the board and good luck!

[Bud]

I repot Phals even in full bloom....do not be scared if you cut off a root or two it will grow more. Soak it first for five minutes so you will not break more roots.

---------- Post added at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 PM ----------

OH! AND WELCOME ABOARD!!!!

[kindrag23]

I just repotted one in full bloom as well. It was in nasty media. So far no drooping or any loss of buds.

[WhiteRabbit]

[czygyny]

I'm new here, too. Isn't it nice that people so far flung all over the world can come together and share their passion for what is becoming a much more affordable and available hobby?

[bethmarie]

Glad you're here!

[Leafmite]

Welcome!

[l1sav]

Thanks for your welcomes. Its nice to share messages with other fellow orchid lovers.
Thanks :0)

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board from a fellow Brit

I would repot if it's been in flower that long. It can sometimes cause the flowering to abort but not always. In your case though it might just give the plant a rest and it will start a new spike if this one does abort as a result of the repotting.

Try and avoid breaking roots, but if it happens then it happens. I always end up breaking some especially if they are sticking out the bottom like you describe. Don't worry too much and just break as few as you can.

Usually you should pot up into a pot that you can just fit the roots into. From your description you might need to go up a pot size or two.

I've not had much luck with bark mixes from the garden center or from places like B&Q or the like. I still think the almost killing of my first phals was down to medium I got from my garden center and it was already breaking down and rotting.

I know of a couple of places you can buy online in the UK from orchid specialists, let me know if you want details. However postage is high for heavy items like bark. Personally I would go to the online specialists anyway but I have a lot of orchids so buy in bulk. The other thing you can do is arrange to pick up the medium at a show if the seller is one that visits shows, or just take a look around at a show, there is usually someone selling medium in my experience.