Repotting help, please...

[chefatplay]

My Brassia Rex was beautiful in bloom this year with three spikes and loads of flowers. It has been about a month now since I cut the spikes back.

After my "first fatality" I wanted to check the roots of all my plants. My Brassia is ALL roots. I am keeping it in the east window for the bright morning sun, it is beautifully green and vibrant.

Questions : Should I replant it? Should I do it now? It is currently in a 6 inch pot, go to an 8 inch pot? Do I introduce new medium? It looks like it may have been in sphag at one time, I'm scared of sphag after my phal problem. What should I use? I have some medium size bark, charcoal , perlite mix and some straight coir.

Watering questions. Does it need to rest now? Should I continue watering it every Sunday? I am using only Worm Tea for watering and misting purposes.

Finally, should I break it apart and make new plants? Should I seperate the roots, good luck on that, I think? Should I just repot the existing root ball into an 8 inch pot with something around the outside?

Help, please..

[fred]

I would not split the plant at all.
that is a very nice plant.
You can tease the roots to get the old medium out cut off any dead roots
you can either repot back into the original pot or go one size up 7inch
chefatplay your bark medium sounds fine to use.
As you are in summer a watering once aweek might not be enough.
some members may say dont repot untill there is new growth on the plant.
with a root system like that i would tease the roots and go the next pot size up.

[kmarch]

Don't divide it, let it grow up into a nice specimen plant which will give you multiple spikes every year.

[arleneg]

Ellen,

Repot when you see new growth. But then, when my oncidium started a couple of new growths, I procrastinated so much until the new growths couldn't grow any bigger, due to the overcrowding.

If you're not a procrastinator like I am, wait. Otherwise, repot.

[palito]

I vote the same. let it become a huge specimen

[chefatplay]

Thank you for your suggestions and help. I think I will keep it all in one piece. Can someone show me what new growth looks like? The only change it has made are the bulbs that came up on top of the old ones. There have been a few small green tender leaves that have seperated from the pbulbs. Is that considered new growth?

Does this plant need to rest, aka no water for period of time? The culture sheets don't put it in black and white, geek style.

[sandra]

Ellen, I'm finding that with my brassias and oncidiums that they love the spahg. It's also very easy to tell when they need watering. I would re-pot this. You can put the plant in running water under the sink faucet until the roots untangle (with gentle coaxing) and all the bark falls away. Either new bark or sphag is needed at this point. If you do decide on sphag, watering is done by placing the plant in the water and letting it soak up until the top layer of the sphag is nice and moist. My oncidiums are growing like crazy since I changed from bark to sphag.

[chefatplay]

Sandra, I have no bark or sphag to remove except at the very top around the psbulbs. There is only packing peanuts in the middle. I'm afraid of sphag. How often do you water your brassias with sphag?

[sandra]

Ellen, life will be made easy for you then. Still try removing the peanuts with running water. Whatever doesn't easily detach, leave! Don't try pulling them off. The one great thing about the sphag on brassias and oncidiums is the sphag will tell you when the plant needs watering. It will turn wheat color and obviously very dry looking. When it's wet, it's nice and moist and deep tan/brown colored. Depending where you keep it and how hot it is will indicate how often it needs watering. My larger plants (like yours) have been going about every 7-9 days even in the heat. I enjoy knowing and seeing the sphag in action....I can't explain it but when the plant soaks it up with each watering, it just seems perfect to me, that it's exactly the way it's supposed to be. If you do decide on the sphag, don't water into the pot but rather put it in water and let it soak it up.

Your plant is gorgeous. Don't divide it!

Oh, one more thing: I still use the skewers to tell when watering is required. It takes all the guesswork out of it.

Originally Posted by chefatplay

Sandra, I have no bark or sphag to remove except at the very top around the psbulbs. There is only packing peanuts in the middle. I'm afraid of sphag. How often do you water your brassias with sphag?

[fred]

well said sandra

the orchid doctor has taught you well

[chefatplay]

Now, the only sphag I have seen is dried in a bag, that's the kind you are talking about, right? Since I am only going to go up one size pot, should I just put is around the outside or tuck it up in the middle, too? Spread everything out? so many questions, thanks for being patient.... Will I get spikes next year since I am going to repot into a slightly bigger pot this year?

[NancyG]

This may sound like a dumb question... Are all those pot bound roots healthy roots? I just repotted a few orchids in semi/hydroponics pellets and I took off a bunch of roots that were brown and didn't turn green when I soaked in water. What color should the roots be when they are healthy?

NancyG

[sandra]

Ellen, the sphag. out here will be found compacted and dried/dehydrated. Soak it for just a couple of minutes and squeeze the excess water out before wrapping the plant in it. Get whatever you can in between the roots but don't worry too much about that, the sphag. will rise/expand a little when watered.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Well, untangling the roots will let you see which roots are alive and which are dead, and you can clean out the dead ones. BUT, if you are going to disturb the roots that much, you really need to wait for the new growths. I think, until you have seen new growths, and then know what they are, you may as well just move the plant up to the slightly larger pot with the least disturbance to the old roots, then the next time you repot, it will probably be time to tear into the roots (with new grows a couple of inches long) to remove the dead roots, and probably to divide the plant. If the plant is starting to put new growths on top of older growths, it is probably going to create a difficult job of repotting in the future because of the severe intertwining. However, dividing should be postponed until you have a little more experience with orchids, and especially until the critical time arrives when the new growths are at the right stage, hence don't divide now. Keep an eye on the way the growth is proceeding so you will know what a "new growth" looks like in the future.

[chefatplay]

Nancy, I have been taught if they are firm, leave them alone. If they are brown and mushy, take them out. All of the roots of my Brassia are brown, I guess that's okay, the plant is great. My Phals, on the other hand, turn green, but they have yellow ones too that are firm. My Vanda's turn green, too.

Maybe someone will educate us further on this.

[NancyG]

Thanks Ellen,

It is confusing which ones are good and which ones should go.

NancyG

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

When removing old roots, I like to start at the back of the plant and snip off the oldest roots from the oldest bulbs, right at the base of the rhyzome, which are by far the most likely to be dead. I will gereally use my pruners to press on the side of the root near the bulb to see if it collapses. Then cut it off if I think it is dead and look at the cut. If I see signs of life in the cut, or find that there was some clearly live roots at the end of the cut off root, I slow way down and feel every root for life. Usually by the time you get to these live roots, there is a lot less root mass to be checking. Firm roots are usually alive unless they are very black, which generally means thay are sort of petified. Color is very undependable a predictor of life in the roots.

[chefatplay]

Well, I repotted the Brassia today. I went from a 6 inch to a 7 inch pot. The root system was quite interesting. A lot of healthy firm roots. Many of the roots had grown through the peanuts in the center, so it took some time to break them apart and get the roots out. I found quite a few new root growths that made me happy.

I used sphag. I took Sandra and Fred's advice on that one. It was previously in sphag, so I put it back. I put bark on the bottom 2 inches and then placed the plant with sphag in the middle and lightly packed around the roots. When placed in the pot, there were a few open spaces, so I very lightly filled the spaces with sphag.

Boy, I hope I did this right. I didn't use much sphag at all. I bought a brick for $4.99 and still have almost all of it.

I'm still on vacation, so if anybody has any suggestions, advice, I will take it. I have the time to correct mistakes.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

The next time you repot, try to use something in the bottom that does not degrade, like white peanuts or rocks, but not 'used' crock as this is a possible virus source. The bark may start to break down before the sphag is my concern. Sandra will have to comment on your sphag job. I only use it in a few very small pots, and not for long.

[sandra]

Ellen, I'm finding that the sphag. works wonders, is fantastic with my small bulbed plants (keikis and seedlings). My two large onc.'s are doing ok in the sphag. BUT, I'm seriously thinking about changing the potting on them and my phals. I've been doing a lot of reading and researching and although sphag. holds the moisture, I'm fearing that it may be holding too much moisture for the larger plants. I've read a lot on peat-moss since being introduced to it last week when purchasing my brassidium. The moss mixed with perlite sounds like a better combination of holding moisture (but not as much as the sphag) so long as you don't over water each time and are careful on how often which of course can be controlled. I like the idea of how much water retention you can control with this as opposed to sphag.

I'm getting some today and will repot the phals first. I'll keep you posted.

Tobi posted this link in my thread about this very subject:
http://www.stonybrookorchids.com/faq.htm

[chefatplay]

Thanks for the tip, Cynthia. There were so many peanuts with roots grown through them, I decided to try the bark to prevent that. Now that you say that about degrading, I see your point.

Sandra, the site was interesting. The only drawback is the same as the sphag. It is light and my plant is heavy. It stabilized itself in the pot because there is one rogue bulb that is twisting along one side. It is big enough there is also a bulb in the back that touches. Keep me informed on the peat. I haven't seen it here, but am sure it can be found. I haven't looked for it, either.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I posted an answer to Sandra in another thread about using a mixture of peat and perlite. If you are seriously considering this mix, you should read my post at the bottom of this thread.
More Cattelya problems...
I started about 4 years ago with equal parts each, and have finally moved up to 2 parts perlite to 1 part peat, and I like it a lot. I am using it on just about everytyhing. But the one thing you have to do something about is the PH that peat will go to. Without adding something to off set the acidic nature of the peat, your mix will go as low as 3.5 ph. I have used dolomite, processed and raw, and have finally settled on oyster shell, which works well, and can be purchased super cheaply at any livestock feed store as a scratch for poultry. I checked my PH in pots recently and it was running about 6.0. At 4.0 and below, you can expect plants to be stunted because they have a hard time taking in nutrients at that PH.

I am currently using 2 cups oyster shell to 1 cuft of mix. I use small perlite, coursely sifted peat, and have just started sifting out the dust from my perlite using window screen material, because I got a bag of perlite that must have been the bottom of the processors batch, and I threw out about 20% as dust. Use thr smallest pot possible and pack it well into the pot. If you don't pack it well into the pot, the water will not wick thru the mix, and you can have a wet interior and a dry top, which won't happen if you pack it fairly firmly.

Now before any of you jump to using this mix, I will say that for a lot of plants, their has been some root rot, and I think that this is an infection type thing, and I have been working with fugicides to see if I can clean up my growing area of a lot of fungal problems, so you may want to hold up on using a similar mix for a while until I report on my success or failure on preventing root rot in this mix.

PS. peat and perlite are available just about everywhere, so this mix may be good for those having an access problem for orchid bark.