Divide or not?

[Gilda]

I only divide when things get too big for their pots..of course, having a lot of phals I don't have to divide those !! I have taken divisions of oncidiums,catts to the society for raffles and auctions and have traded and sold some of my not favorites...I hate to repot !!

[Gilda]

but for the moment a specimen plant excites me a hell of a lot more than another pot to feed...

Julie

Only one answer to that quote !!
Size matters !!!

[orchidaddict789]

I'm not a fan of repotting, so I usually keep my plants intact. Unless, of course, it gets too big, like my dozen-pbulb miltassia. Not that I really want to divide it, because cutting up orchids still make me . Okay, so no dividing for the moment. If I have to divide, I divide to get more plants. It's fun that way. But still, I'm more into specimen plants. Yep, those huge gigantic ones are extremely exciting!

[Gin]

A big specimen plant makes my heart skip I love them . The answer is no I don't divide unless I have to leafless bulbs no new eyes ect. . Gin

[kewpie]

i love specimen-sized plants too because theyre such a novelty for me. most of my guys are nbs...

the only plant that i actively *decided* to repot was my ornery bllra. marfitch 'howards dream' that was growing pseudobulbs in a single file. dont these guys know that they have to do what *i* tell them? like bloom when i tell em, and grow when i tell em?

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yeah, right.

[Tanya]

I agree with Louis, divide for manageability. I just moved a cymbidium that is growing in a 20" pot and it almost broke my back .

[LJA]

oops.

I wrote but forgot to vote....

Also, Josh, Nancy, I'll be dividing that one Gram next week; I'll send you the divisions if you'll pay for shipping. (PM me with your addies if you're still interested....)

Ok, back to Divide or Not....

[shalene]

I only divide if a plant is getting to big for my limited space. I have a Brsdm. Shooting Star 'Black Gold' HCC/AOS that is a monster and should be divided now but I want to see how many spikes it gets this year. Greedy, Greedy!!! Next spring it will be chunks!!!
Shalene

[ATester]

In my case I ended up dividing my Oncidium due to the pseudo bulbs being really crammed together and the roots in most cases were growing straight up even though I did have room around the rhizome. I consulted one of my books and it sugested dividing the orchid in this case. I felt almost guilty taking a sharp knife to the plant. I am quite sure I set the division back a while and probably won't see blooming again for a little (fingers crossed here) while. Its been over 24 hrs since surgery and the orchid(s) don't seem to be too worse for the wear at the moment.

Though hind sight is perversly 20/20, I'm taking a poll here, was this the apropriate action to take?

Aaron

[MikeWA]

That is the growing habit of that plant. The PB being tightly packed with that genera will not cause any problems. Rule of thumb, Only divide if you can make at least a 2 bulb plus new growth division or 3 total and still leave at least 3 old PBs.