Repotting paphs - clumsy me

[Kerry]

Hello

As most of my paphs flowers have died off, I decided yesterday was an ideal time to repot. Half of the repotting went fine, but with a couple of the plants that I bought back in March at the RHS London show, I was totally flumoxed.

I don't know if it is coincidence, but I had a falling apart issue with both my album and coloratum varieties of paph Maudiae. However, they were bought from different vendors.

Basically, when I took the Album plant out of the pot, not only was two thirds of the pot just bark and no roots whatsoever, it turned into 4 plants with really small roots!



Am I totally clumsy, and have I managed to break off the new growths rather easily? As I said this happened with both maudiae plants, but not the others that I repotted, although the quality of the root growth was mixed. Or is it possible that rather than selling larger plants, a number of small plants were put together?



I have potted them all up seperately, with the smallest two in 1.5 inch diameter pots. Was this the right thing to do, or should I have potted them back together? I was concerned that I couldn't hold them all upright whilst stuffing in the bark media, and then that any pot with a decent circumference to fit in the four growths, was just too deep and would hold too much water and then might cause root rot. I have used quite a small bark mix with perlite.

Thanks for your comments in advance...

[Brutal_Dreamer]

I suspect that more than one plant was potted up to make the plant look larger. I think you were right to pot them individually. This way you can be sure to not overwater. Once they all are along the same size, you can trade a couple or pot them up together for a really nice display when blooming season rolls around.

Cheers,
BD

[uncasteeb]

Separately is the way to go.
They do look nice & healthy , i have been repotting my baby paphs & i was surprised how well the roots have grown.

[smartie2000]

They will soon send new roots. It was rotted which is why they broke apart so easily and lack roots. How was watering and how old/dense was the mix? I usually add tons of perlite, sponge rock and small charcoal pieces to keep the mix airy even if it rots.

[Kerry]

The mix wasn't too bad actually, small bark and perlite. It seemed quite fresh too, as there was very little fine or mushy matter. I have been trying to water them every week, but kind of keep forgetting so sometimes they were getting quite dry. There weren't rotted roots in the pot, just very few of them.

There were a couple of peaty organic plugs that made me think two young plants had been pulled out their pots, seedling mix and all and stuck together. I found this is another paph which had rooted really well throughout the rest of the mix so I had to tease the pluggy bits out from right under the actual plant.


So far, I still haven't gotten any charcoal. I certainly haven't seen any locally, have seen it on internet but shipping really high price. Was wondering if I could just use some stuff that was destined for the Bar-b-que!

[smartie2000]

I just use horticultural charcoal from the garden section of a box store (I'm not sure what home improvement store is in UK). It comes in small pieces and it is cheap dusty stuff, but works

I try to grow tons of roots and I think roots are the most important thing on a paph. They are good paphs if you can lift the plant up without the pot falling off.

It doesn't sound like you rotted them, so I am not sure. Perhaps they were rotted plants that were repotted and sold that way

[Kerry]

Who knows - but let's see if I can get them healthy and happy and raring to go for next year!