Orchid Divide and re pot - Advice Please

[CaptBuddy]

My neighbor moved away and gifted me with this plant. The flowers are pale violet, and turn white as they age.




There is some cold weather damage that I'll remove as I re pot.
I don't know what type of medium, if any, is there now. I typically use bark on most of my potted orchids. I have some new plastic pots for this.
Any advice on how to split this, or links to posts or videos?
Are several small plants better that a few large plants?
We are coming up on some warm weather forecast, so I think this is a good time. Certainly little chance of severe cold now (Central Florida).
Any tips or pitfalls are appreciated. Thanks,
CB

[Traci]

I have no advice here but it’s beautiful. I know someone will post soon.

[raybark]

My approach to such tasks is to immerse the pot and root mass in water for an hour or so, unpot it, and look for obvious separation points. Then, grasping fairly large clusters of growths, just tear it apart at those points. If you cannot see any obvious demarcations, a large, sharp knife can create them. Once down to manageable pieces, tease as much of the old potting medium out of the root mass as you can before repotting.

I recommend a few larger divisions, rather than breaking it into small ones, as the recovery time will be faster.

[JDT]

I would agree with Ray, personally I like large divisions but how small you make each divisions is up to you.

[CaptBuddy]

Thanks for the advice.
I did crack it open and found that it did have some very nice, robust new root growth. I divided it up by root growth, 2 larger clumps and some smaller one. So I ended with 2 nice 6 inch pots for me and 3 smaller pots for giving away to friends.

There was virtually no medium remaining, and lots of stringy dead roots, as you can imagine. Not much cold weather damage except on a few leaves. So I think they'll come out fine.