Repotting

[DarkRubiTJ]

I'm new to the forum and new to orchids so please bear with me.

I've aqquired four or five plants that are in need of repotting. 4 Phals and a Den. Two of the Phals are blooming. I beleive that I should wait until they stop before repotting. One is very root bound and probablly needs to be split into 2 plants. The other is out grown the 4" pot that it is in and needs a bigger home. The other 2 Phals were freebies that had bloomed out and we couldn't sell them. I have planned to use bark as a medium, however I've heard about using styrofoam shipping peanuts as a base for the bark, is this an acceptable practice?

The Den. is the plant that has me perplexed. The blooms started to die at the store, and I watched it go downhill for a couple of weeks and then bought it on the cheap. I got it home and sprayed it with a neem oil based fungicde and repeated the treatment a week later but it still is on the downhill slide. The 2 tallest canes are yellowing with now large black areas on the leaves. There is new growth on the other canes that seems unaffected. I know it's not getting enough light but temps are still too cool to let it go outside to stay for probablly another week. I've taken it to the driest area of the house, to dry out and see if that's the problem. If it doesn't get better I'm going to repot it and seperate the sick canes out. What medium would be the best to use? Does this course of action sound like the correct way to handle the problems?


Thanks in advance,

Bruce

[LJA]

Hi Bruce,

I'll just go through and answer your questions one at a time....

Two of the Phals are blooming. I beleive that I should wait until they stop before repotting

You can repot before they're through, but by disturbing and possibly breaking roots, you risk the plant dropping its flowers prematurely.

One is very root bound and probablly needs to be split into 2 plants.

Phals. are monopodial, meaning they only have one "foot" or growth stem. Unless the main plant has developed a baby off to the side with its own roots, there's nothing to divide or split up, so this plant would just need repotting.

I have planned to use bark as a medium, however I've heard about using styrofoam shipping peanuts as a base for the bark, is this an acceptable practice?

We use styrofoam peanuts here to cover the drainage holes of our pots. They're light, which saves on shipping, and they don't decompose. Just make sure you don't use the biodegradable kind made out of starch, or the colored (pink and green) kind which has chemicals in it that can harm the plant. For Phals, straight bark as a medium is ok, but it doesn't have much water retention, which means you'll be watering pretty often to keep the plant healthy. You might want to go with an orchid potting "mix" that has other things in it besides just bark. Most home improvement stores carry it.

If [the denrobium] doesn't get better I'm going to repot it and seperate the sick canes out. What medium would be the best to use?

It's not uncommon for dendrobium canes to yellow, shrivel, and dry up. They will do that in preparation for putting out new canes from the base of the remaining old ones. There's not a whole lot you can do to stop the process. With dendrobiums, strong light is absolutely key. But, if the plant was already going downhill at the store, you might unpot it and check the roots to see if they're rotted. Dends like their roots to dry out a little between waterings so, depending on your growing conditions and watering habits, straight bark for it may be just fine.

If the large black areas on the leaves are a fungus, the neem should help. If they're a bacterial infection, you might want to pour some listerine on a paper towel and wipe the leaves down top and bottom with that.

If you've never repotted before, you can check out a step by step guide on the basics of it in the CARE section of our site.

[DarkRubiTJ]

Thanks ever so much!!

I do keep strict track of my watering and feedings using My Orchids software.

I come with a bit of knowledge about home centers. I work for boxstore and I know we have several different mixes available.

Thanks for the tip on "peanuts" I have a box laying around somewhere amid the clutter.

My freebie orchids are ones destined for the compactor at work, I think they will be great experience at little to no cost.

Thanks,

Bruce

[LJA]

No problem at all: most of the folks on here are new to orchids and are learning by reading other people's posts. If you have a digital camera handy (and some time...) maybe you could take some pics of those freebies and the dendrobium out of their pots and post them on here. An orchid plant that may look like it's "going downhill' may actually not be, and new growers, I think, would appreciate seeing what to look for in case there's trouble. (No hurry or anything, just if you have some time and feel like it ) Your experience with those plants, I think, will benefit everyone if you can share it!

Have a good one!

[DarkRubiTJ]

I would love to post some pictures. What file size works best?

Bruce

[LJA]

The system will accept file uploads as big as about 1 MB, but that's really way too huge. Try to keep it around a couple hundred Kbytes, and the images' dimensions should be around 400 x 400 pixels, if possible.

Thanks!