Look at those roots!

Guess how long it too me to repot this catt?

If you said 3 minutes, then you'd be right! I love Hydroton for catts..look at all those healthy roots. I love this because you can "pot on" without destroying roots at any time during the year. You can see that this catt is in bud and is currently producing new roots from the lead p-bulb. Time to repot!

This is a first-blooming from Blc. Volcano Blue "#2"...a bag baby from about a year ago. I can't wait until it pops!

Clint

that is awesome!

Cheers,
BD

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We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box. ...Hmmm? .

Is it in s/h? Or do you let it dry out like normal??

Christian

It dries out like normal. I have some other catts in s/h that do just as well.

Do you worry at all about danger to the coming buds when repotting? I had been waiting on some buds, thinking it would be better to pot afterwards....

No. I don't worry about the bud danger as I don't destroy the roots when I'm repotting. You just slip the plant out of the pot gently, put it in a new pot, and then add new media.

I only worry about repotting a plant in bud if there is going to be a lot of root breakage involved.

Thanks!

Eventually all good things must come to an end. There are two things that worry me about that mass of lovely roots in an inorganic/inert/forever media.
One: I have a couple that are similar to yours in which there are little to NO MORE AIR SPACES, simply because the root mass is so prolific. Two: Eventually if you keep just moving it into a bigger pot, the back bulbs and associated roots are going to become ineffectual and die of natural causes. All things die. When that happens, I'm led to believe that chemical compounds (I believe they referred to phenolic compounds) are produced that inhibit and/or cause death to surrounding roots.
As I said, eventually all good things must come to and end. I never thought that I would live to see roots and new growth like I am currently experiencing. It is literally an embarrassment of riches. I have been waiting to see how the other edge of the sword would manifest itself. I believe that the above two items may be a part of the other edge, but I have not been in S/H long enough to really be able to tell.

I know there will come a time when some of the roots on the old growth will die. It should be easy to tell during repotting time...just look for "soft" areas that aren't held together by the root ball or older p-bulbs that become shriveled and yellowed.

I have seen cattleyas in 12" clay pots that have been grown like this--the backbulbs are plump and happy and the plants flower like crazy. I should say that mine are in plastic pots up to 6"..anything bigger than that is clay. It's easy to make specimens this way.

Maybe in 5 years or so, I'll have to cut some old roots away.

Again, I should say that this plant isn't in s/h, but is watered about every 5 days--normal drying out time for a catt in a pot this size.


I still think this is superior to jerking your catt out of its pot every 2-3 years, trimming roots, and beginning the evil cycle again.

I used lava rock for my catt in 6" pot (originally 4" pot), it grew tons of roots. When I divided it a year later, I had to chopped a lot of the roots off in order to seperate those pbs.