Max. tenuofolia needs repotting?

[Purple_phal_gal13]

Hey ya'll a few months ago I aquired a coconut orchid and with this comes my first thinner rooted orchid. I looked at the pot and saw it's full of roots and was wondering if ya'll could tell me when's the best time to repot these guys?

It doesn't seem too crowded and I"m not familar with wether or not these guys like to have their roots snug. Also the potting medium seems to be a little older but I can't tell how old. This plant came from FL and it's obvious that it spent some time outside.

It's potted in 100% sphagnum moss and the media I've been using with my phals and lady slipper is a sphag, vermaculite, perilite, fir bark mix. Should I go to this media or stick with sphagnum? I would like to pot in in my media of choice. I"m not a fan of sphagnum.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[WhiteRabbit]

I'm new to these as well, so am also interested to know when the ideal time for repotting may be...
I do know thew like to remain quite moist in summer, so keep that in mind when choosing media.

[cbuchman]

Orchid Wiz says to repot just after new growth starts. Use fast draining medium with some moisture retention material (e.g., perlite, sphagnum) and maybe some charcoal to keep the medium fresh.

(I have one too )

[Ordphien]

Mines planted in extremely chunky bark mix.
Which seems to suit its water hogging ways just fine.

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[SydneyH]

I have one that I got maybe a year and a half ago. It was potted very tightly in sphagnum, so I repotted in my regular bark mix with some sphagnum thrown in. It took several months to recover, but it's doing extremely well now. Since it was originally potted so tightly, I probably lost some roots in the repotting process though. At least it does well when the cat isn't knocking it over.

Sydney

[DavidCampen]

I have one that I got a little over a year ago and it is just now starting to bloom for me. It is in a mesh pot in pure sphagnum.

The flowers don't smell like coconut to me; more like chocolate mint like my Stanhopea occulata though not nearly as intense.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I've grown this species in New Zealand Sphagnum Moss, SuperSphag and pumice, SuperSphag and perlite, and fir bark.

All I've gotta say is...

With this species, whatever potting media you prefer or are familiar with that provides the plant with adequate moisture during the spring and summer months will work just fine.

The only thing I'd advise against would be mounting it if you are not able to provide the ridiculous amounts of water it needs during growing season, (growing season starts in spring, btw), and if your relative humidity levels are below 60%.

[Purple_phal_gal13]

Ok so now weeks after posting this and I still havent' repotted my Maxillaria and it's not doing so hot. It's starting to drop it's long leaves. They turn brown and they fall off the pseudobulb. I have a few more starting to yellow.

What does this mean? Am I watering too much or is it for sure a sign that it's in worn out media?

I'm going with the media first as I highly doubt it's a fungus or virus problem. Process of Elimination, start with the simpliest this first.

[Pilot]

If they leaves are from lower bulbs it may just be the natural loss of leaves. I grow mine in semi hydroponics and grows really well though I'm still waiting for blooms.

[SydneyH]

Occasionally the tips of a leaf will turn brown if I've let it go without water too long. It likes to stay moist. I've never lost a leaf in the year I've had mine.

Mine came packed very tightly in sphagnum and started to look stressed after a few months. Keeping in mind I'm a beginner with orchids, I'm glad I repotted it into a different media. It looked stressed for a while after repotting but it went crazy growing new roots and now it looks very healthy with 3 new blooms. I think in the original pot, the sphagnum was too tight for it to grow all of the roots it wanted to grow.

Sydney