Repotting a BLC Orchid advice

[Nan]

Friends, need some advice on repotting this plant (Blc Almakee Tipmalee). It is right now in a 3" pot. As it is top heavy I am keeping this in another 5" pot for support [originally there was a clay pot on the outside of the 3" pot that I discarded]. My questions -

1) Should I repot it into the 5" pot or should I use a bigger pot ?

2) It will just about fit into the 5" pot, do I center it or plant it leaving room on the side with new growths ?

3) The roots outside the pot are rotten, should I cut these off ?

4) The plant is embedded in a hard plug that looks like outer husk of coconut. It has become soft and comes off now, I have pulled out a piece on the side. Should I remove this material from the roots ? Will the roots inside be hurt if I remove this plug in which this plant is embedded ?

[catttan]

I would remove the old coconut husk and the old dead roots. I f you intend to repot the whole plant and not divided the clump, 5 inch pot sounds about right, but plant it in such a way that the front pbulbs has room to move forward for another 2 or 3 new bulbs

[Brutal_Dreamer]

I would remove the old coconut husk and the old dead roots. I f you intend to repot the whole plant and not divided the clump, 5 inch pot sounds about right, but plant it in such a way that the front pbulbs has room to move forward for another 2 or 3 new bulbs

I agree. place the oldest growth against the outside edge of the pot aligning the newest growth toward the center of the pot. As Mr. Yew Sung said, remove all the rotten materials and repot in the larger pot. Check out this article on here in our Orchid Care Section : How to Repot/Divide a Cattleya Orchid

cheers,
BD

[tucker85]

I agree. place the oldest growth against the outside edge of the pot aligning the newest growth toward the center of the pot. As Mr. Yew Sung said, remove all the rotten materials and repot in the larger pot. Check out this article on here in our Orchid Care Section : How to Repot/Divide a Cattleya Orchid

cheers,
BD

I agree with the previous posts. I would remove all the old potting material and cut off dead roots. I would also cut off the back bulbs that have no leaves on them. I usually don't treat the cut and it's never caused a problem for me. Place the back of the plant against the pot so the front has room for a couple new growths. The rhizome should be on the surface and not buried so you'll need a pot clip or some other method of holding the plant in until it gets established. You might even be able to tie it in place with that kind of pot. Good luck.

[Nan]

Thanks Yew, Jeff and Bruce.

[Halloamey]

If the new 5'' pot is the one it is already double potted in, I would recommend a bigger pot may be 6 or 8 inch. That way you do not have to repot it again the next 2 years. Pot it up using 2 parts charcoal and 1 part coco nut husk chips and it will not stay wet inspite of the bigger pot size. Unifoliate cattleyas are very sensitive to repotting and once disturbed take a while to adjust and bloom. I think it is already a bit late to repot this one as you can see the new roots are quite long and may be damaged while repotting, but if you are careful enough those would be fine.

[Nan]

...thats what I did finally Amey! The 5" pot outside the current pot was too small so I went for a 6" one. I was too scared to put a knife to the pseudo bulbs and divide so kept the entire thing and repotted after removing as much of the bad roots and old potting material as possible leaving just a little space on the growing side.

[Halloamey]

Looks good Nandini. You must stake it to support it, a small bamboo or aluminium pipe should be fine. So that the plant won't topple, also helps in staking new pseudobulbs and flowers. Also I see you have potted it with coconut husk chips. You will have to be very careful with the watering. Also may be make a couple of holes on the sides of the pot with a soldering gun for extra air circulation. By the way, the Phal. in the background is gorgeous.

[Nan]

Yes, I think I should be putting in a stake at this point (the plant right now is quite stable, it has grown in a slanted way in the old pot). I was thinking of 8" pot as that will give more room for growth but somewhere I read that the plant will tend to spread its pseudo bulbs loosely if the space available is more and that it is better if its a bit cramped as the pseudo bulbs then tend to get cramped together and the plant becomes more stable. So 6" pot it was, with just little more space to grow.

I am using charcoal on the bottom and then coconut husk on top as we seem to have low humidity here (same in Pune I think ?) and coconut husk seems to keep the moisture better. Earlier I used to pot in charcoal only as the people at the nursery [Indo Am] I normally go to have all their plants in plain charcoal. For last one year I have been using chc, it is easier to handle. The phal in the background is from the same place, potted in charcoal and perennially in bloom. Thanks again Amey.