Com pots

[exasperatus2002]

At what point do you seperate a compot into individual plants?

[jerrymeola]

Most compots being sold to hobbyist are capable of being re-potted when purchased.

If you do it very early after removal from flasks (which you may not know the date)the plants need gentler care. Leaving them too long entangles all the roots and separating gets harder.

Most commercial growing has gone to plug trays to avoid these problems.

[digitalgate]

wonder if the plug trays is cheap to make here...

If the root is getting crowded in the community pot then it is time to repot. But you just your plant from the lab?

[kmarch]

To answer your question: 1 or 2 years depending on what kind of orchid you're talking about. I have some Paph flasks in my near future and I'll let them go in a com pot for a year then pot them individually next spring. A grower I knew back in Michigan left phals in a compot...actually a community tray for a year then potted them individually. I think cattleyas probably more like 2 but I've never done those so I don't know for sure.

[exasperatus2002]

Its for my Catt noid seedlings that I got from Patticake for practice for my flask thats at the lab. I've got them potted in trio's and I've had them for almost a month now. I just wasnt sure when I would need to seperate them later on. What do the plug trays look like?

[Brooke]

It depends on the size of the seedling. Some will grow rapidly so I remove those to their own 2" pot but leave the smaller sized ones in a compot.

I have some L. rubescens aurea I redid yesterday. These were deflasked last Nov and put into various size compots. Yesterday some got their own pot and the rest were put back into another compot. I keep the same size together to keep the bigger more robust 'chids from over shadowing their smaller brothers.

Brooke

[Ron]

A simple answer I would apply to my compots is.
1; are they capable of growing in individual pots without being over potted.
2; is it their growing season to repot now and get strainght into the new growth cycle.
3; are they overcrowded and need to be repotted.
When I do catts from flask I usually put about 9 plants into a 4 inch squat pot and leave until the following spring (12 months).
If the plants were very big from flask I usually put them 1 each into 2 inch pots and leave until they need to be repotted.
Best of luck
Ron

[davetheorchidaddict]

Tried that a couple of time, about 8 - 10 years ago, most of them I am still waiting for them to bloom. I help out at a grower's gh from time to time and have broken down compots - plants were close to 3" tall and roots a tangled mess.