At what stage should i repot my phalaenopsis?

[crazyblue]

I have a large dark pink phalaenopsis with 2 flowering spikes, unfortunatly the height of it means that it is very top heavy and tends to tip over damaging the flowers. One of the spikes is old and faded but the other one has only just fully opened. I have several books with tips on orchid care in but they never seem to have the same opinion as to what stage of growth i can put this orchid in a bigger pot to stop it falling over. It has lifted itself out of its current pot which makes the problem even worse. I want to do my best for this plant as i brought it as an out of flower bargain and its rewarded my hard work with stunning flowers. does anyone know what i should do?

[norris]

I'm pretty new at growing orchids myself, but Ive read different opinions anywhere from re-potting anytime is ok for Phalaenopsis, to waiting till all flowering is over.
Have you tried placing your top heavy pot in larger heavy pot?

[tizzycat]

I would either leave it until it has finished flowering, and do you best to stabilise it,

OR

Lift it en-mass, without disturbing anything to a larger pot and pack it out with bark (or your chosen medium).

good luck.

[brookn]

You can repot Phals at any time, just do it carefully. I recomend a repot, because all of the tipping and movement is disturbing the roots, and will damage them (if they are not already). You might lose a few flowers, but I have repotted Phals in all stages, with relatively few ill effects. If it is disturbed too much it will sulk for a couple of months, and as the tipping and coming out of the medium is already going on, it is already being a bit disturbed. Repot and stabilize, the plant will love you for it, and the next bloom should be spectacular hopefully. They really do need time to acclimate to new conditions anyway, and I find that if they were in bloom when you got them, they will sulk for you, but once they get over the adjustment, it is all good. I generally repot new plants after they have been with me a couple of weeks, so I can see what is going on below the surface.

[BunnytheOrchid]

I repot after the phal is done spiking, and the spike has turned completely brown. But I have heard, as Brookn suggested, it is perfectly fine to repot sooner/later or at other stages, even with flowers. Perhaps for yours, more importantly than tipping over, if the orchid is tremendously coming out of the pot (roots and crown and such), a repot might be good. The tipping over should be resolved if its pot is put in a larger, more stable pot.

[11Orchid126]

I slip my pots into larger clay pots and use them as sleeves to stabiilize a top heavy orchid. If it's still not stabilized, put some stones in the bottom of the pot.

[patlee]

Crazyblue, Welcome to the forum We'll try to help you with any of your growing concerns. Then you choose what you think will best fit your orchids

The other day I brought home a phal that sounds very much like yours. I ended up doing a re-pot and cutting off the blooms. They will last two or three weeks in a vase of water (not a bad compromise) and you can give your plant a new home and not worry about accidentally breaking the blooming spike. The advantage to this is that the next bloom should be, as Brookn said, quite a show...Oh, one more thing,if you cut the spike above a node, the plant may give you a sub-spike and more flowers yet. And you have repotted so you're good to go...Happy plant=happy grower!!

Good growing

[kmarch]

Hi crazyblue and welcome to the forum,

No one has yet mentioned to take care not to overpot your phal. Over potting is using a pot that is too big for the plant. We want to avoid over potting because with too big a pot, th emix in the middle stays too wet and breaks down faster which is not good for the roots. A good rule of thumb is to use the smallest pot which can still comfortably contain the plant's roots. Sometimes this means that some orchids get top heavy. This can be fixed by putting the potted orchid inside a larger pot with stones or something to weight down the bottom.

[Rocinante]

Welcome to the forum, crazyblue . I repotted my Phal 6 weeks into a full bloom, mainly because as a newbie to orchids I am not yet comfortable with sphagnum moss ('cause it always feels wet). I re-potted into coir/perlite/charcoal mix and believe me I was nervous about damaging this beautiful plant! Anyway, as I untangled the root ball to trim out the couple of dead roots it had, I found that it didnt want to refit into it's former pot and I didn't prepare for re-potting by obtaining a larger one. So, long story short, I soaked the roots real good and gently reformed the root ball to fit back into the same pot. It suffered a little bud blast, but now 2 weeks later it is still in bloom and seems none the worse for wear. I guess what I'm saying is you have to experiment to learn...

[mayres]

John that is one nice set of phal blooms! Do you have a name or is it a noid?
Crazy - I have found the easiest way to deal with top heavy plants (of which I have found dends to be the absolute worst) is to purchase some nice HEAVY ceramic pots at a place like Lowes or Home Depot and use them as a few above have suggested - as over-pots. Take your current pot out to water and then place into the heavy pot to keep the plant from tipping over. You can top dress with something like spanish moss for effect if you like. Kevin's note on not repotting into too large a pot if you repot is extremely important on phals. If you are a relative new orchid grower and have no reason to expect the media you have now to be broken down I would leave well enough alone for the time being and just enjoy your plant/flowers.
My first tips to new phal growers - DO NOT OVERWATER - when in doubt wait another 2-3 days. Keep out of direct sunlight - put in bright filtered or indirect light if possible.
Enjoy! mike

[Rocinante]

That's Phalaenopsis King Shang's Rose.

[crazyblue]

Think im quite stunned by the response! thankyou everyone. Im going to try a couple of things and see what happens. Unfortunatly i lost my first orchid to over watering so im very very cautious about doing aything to my others other than watering and the odd feed.

[fred]

welcome crazyblue
I think you might also find the AOS Culture sheet useful please see link
AOS | Culture Sheets

you can download the culture sheet to your PC
please feel free to ask if you have any more question for we are all here to help you