Potting plants together

[Maba]

I am just starting to acquire orchid plants. In general, I would like to find varieties that do well in my conditions and have largeish pots of them, rather than many small pots. I am thinking about buying 2 of a kind and potting them together to achieve this effect. Is this a bad idea? I know there are things to think about like moisture retention in a larger pot and roots wanting to be potbound....

For instance, I recently received two Colm. Wildcat plants in 5" pots. I was planning to pot them together to have a "substantial" orchid--though not technically a specimen plant. Haven't done it yet, but if I do, what size of pot should I go for? I plan to use clay pots.

Thanks!
Maba

[jerrymeola]

It is quite common for commercial growers to plant two or more plants in a pot to attain selling size plants faster. So it will work well.

Issues will be that the plant will (as with any potting) first grow roots to fill the pot, then leaves and then flowers. If the pot is too large then the potting medium that does not have roots will stay wet too long. You have to really control watering at this time.

A small issue with Wildcat is that it grows so fast the double potting may not be necessary. Wildcat and many oncidium alliance plants can double in size every year.

Potting will go easier if the plants were in sphagnum moss, which is very common. I find that since Wildcat puts out new roots on the side that is growing, it then has the roots start to grow around the pot. If you can separate the roots at the side without new growth, then you can by holding your thumbs at the center, spread the plant into a half moon. Do this with each and place the two halves flat side to flat and then pot in a pot about 1 inch larger. Actually this is easier to do than it is to describe in words.

An alternative to planting more than one plant together in a pot is to make it look like they're planted all together when actually you have them in individual pots. You get a large pot, put the smaller plants in the pot (you may have to put something underneath the pots to raise them up to the same height) and then cover the tops of the pots over with sphagnum or sheet moss.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If the plants you put into the same pot are different hybrids or clones, but look alike vegatatively, you will have a problem when you finally have to repot. You won't know which piece is which plant. This is a bummer for those that will get your divisions, as they will have no idea what they have until it blooms, and you won't know either, and may give away the only piece of one or more of the plants This practice is very short sighted. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[Maba]

I appreciate the responses!

No, if I do this, it will be only with plants purchased as 2 of a kind. I had thought of using orchid126's approach of grouping plants together in larger cache pots, and I may still try this, but moving moss and the like for watering is not ideal.

I will probably do my best to implement Jerry's idea of potting together by spreading the plants to fill a single clay pot. I guess I will have to buy several sizes of pots to have on hand since I don't know what the resulting root mass will be.

Also another question Jerry: if I do your procedure properly, will the older parts of the plants end up on the edges of the new pot or in the middle where they come together? Thanks.

[jerrymeola]

good question.

This puts all the old pseudobulbs in the middle. If they are well establshed plants I would remove the older leafless bulbs. It will look better. If you have at least 2-3 bulbs with good leaves then removing old back bulbs will not stress the plant.

Much of the decisions will be made as you do it to make the plant look its best. These are more questions of how the plant will look rather than healt, so you have to make thenm as you go.

As to pot size - 2 four inch plants will probably repot into a 5 inch pot. Then you can consider a 6 inch pot in 6-9 moths as it grows.