Afraid to repot phalaenopsis after a bad experience

[Maxy24]

Do you know the rationale behind this practice?

I know with cacti you wait a couple of weeks so that if any damage was done to the roots it has plenty of time to dry, callous and start healing before you get the wound wet. Wet wounds lead to rot. But phal roots are so large it seems like damage would be obvious, so if you don't damage your roots there would be no reason so wait at all. Plus I don't think rot is nearly as easy to cause in orchids as it is in cacti.

[AnonYMouse]

Clean and heal rotting roots I get, it's the two weeks I don't get. In my environment, even a healthy plant will desiccate in that time, even in moss. Many will survive but will be compromised.

I wonder if the two weeks were set arbitrarily and repeated often enough...

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

Do you know the rationale behind this practice?

The only thing I've read is the healing of the roots, however I've never properly understood it myself, hence the reason I've never bothered.

[jimkamal]

Well, I am going to water the current phals very sparingly only to water when the sphagnum is almost completely dry. We are in the process of moving place (I'm pretty excited of our new place, since it is up higher elevation so I will get some temperature fluctuation to maybe encourage bloom on phals), so I don't want to repot, and then move them to a new location where they still need time to adjust. I will repot it once we are settled and the bloom fades. I am planning on using the orchid gro mix for phalaenopsis by sun bulb.Heard good reviews and I'm trusting on it since it's endorsed by AOS.

[Optimist]

I don't understand the two week thing either. What I understand is that a lot of these rules were made before the phenominon of emergency potting due to imported Tiawan orchids in spag moss.


If you pot when you see live root tips and growth, that is when the plant needs the most water. If you pot after cutting off a spike, I can see that it might be in a dormant mode, if it happens to be winter too, dormant roots and cool weather can rot the roots. When it flowers and post flower there is none to little vegetative growth? Maybe this is the reason. Repotting was supposed to be done at a time when I would do the least amount of damage. Now the first thing that happens is a total envoronment change while it is in flower. I finally realize why I keep killing phals.