Divide and Conquer

[shirleyruth]

How do I divide Phalaenopsis without killing my beautiful orchid? It's getting root bound. Thanks for the advice.

[mayres]

You never "divide" a phalaenopsis orchid. They like to be somewhat root bound - if the media is still good I would not worry about potting a plant up unless you have had it for a significant period of time and there are lots and lots of roots coming out everywhere - even then it is more for our benefit than the plants. The most common way to get a duplicate plant would be to do things to encourage the plant to put out a keiki (baby) on the flower spike - depending upon its environment and its heredity it may or may not put one out. There are other methods used as well but they take lots and lots of time and are not for most normal home growers. They can be cloned by laboratories or the spikes can be cut and placed in media to try and grow keikis on its own away from the mother plant (not easy to do). If you do really need to repot, don't go any bigger than what it takes to just get your roots inside - maybe an inch or two bigger than what you have it in now - smaller is better than bigger.

[jerrymeola]

There is no way to divide a Phal since it is a single plant growing on one center growth. If you have two growing areas you may have two plants there were planted together when they were young. It is possible to separate two plants growing together sometimes but often they have intermingled roots to where you do too much damage separating them.

If you have two plants soak them well when you are re-potting and if separating is possible you will be able to tell when you shake the potting medium off the roots. If they do not separate easy don't do it.