[mehitabel]

Hi, Sue. It sounds to me like you're doing just great without any advice. Congratulations!

Like several people above, I repot when I think they need it. I repot when I first buy an orchid. I at least unpot and check the roots if one starts to look "peaked" or doesn't grow when all its neighbors are growing.

Culture notes at the Canadian Orchid Congress discuss repotting as benefitting phals under several different conditions. You'll be encouraged and soothed by reading them. Howard Ginsburg of Bedford Orchids says repot phals often, whenever you feel like it, oftener than you think is needed. He says there is a growth spurt for three- to four months after a repot. For seedlings, he recommends a repot every 3-4 months. And yes, I think he is right about the growth spurt. You can read his comments at bedfordorchids.com. Just scroll down the page til you get to the culture notes.

About spiking: older type "standard" phals-- the big pinks, whites and stripes -- do tend to have a more or less fixed blooming time and a three or four month "off" period. However, the newer hybrids that have a mix of summer- and winter- blooming species in their ancestries can bloom more or less non-stop, and do start new spikes very soon after an old one is finished, if they are mature and healthy enough.

These would include waxy reds and purple, many harlequins, and most yellows as well as dtps with lots of doritis in them, and also multifloras.

There's no big mystery to repotting, and it doesn't have to be done by the phases of the moon. Just do it, using your gardener's common sense and whatever you can learn from the COC notes or other sources. Be sure to soak the plant for an hour or so to soften the roots and make them pliable first. Then handle with a *very* light hand, which most women can do. Eeeeease off the old medium, soaking it a little more if needed. It's better to leave a little old stuff on the roots than to damage the plant getting it off.

One more word about repotting: I got some good high grade sphag this spring and repotted all my phals into it in April. I have mostly the "new" type phals, and only a few of the standards. There was an absolute *orgy* of spiking all thru May and June. Third spikes on ones that were already blooming, and new spikes on nearly every other big, mature phal. At least 20-30 phals set new spikes after that repot.

So I think Howard Ginsburg is on to something.