wats the best way to repot this?

[God.Jr]

hey there everyone well i am new and have been waiting to put this entry up with pics and i think now i can so here we go..... oh yeah i don't know wat speices this beauty is so if anyone can help that will be madness



pic-A...... ok this is just to show you wat size the new pot is i have for this little bugger.....i think it may be too big but the roots are comin out the bottom of the old pot so i've been thinking it's time to re-pot this....

pic-B....... this pic i was trying to show the shape of the root system sticking out the surface ..... i was thinking maybe i could put a biggish piece of drift wood so it sticks out the pot and place the orchid on the drift wood.....is this a good idea?

pic-C....... well as you can now see how bad this one needs re-potting i think..... if you can see she is inside three pots including the green one seen in the first pic, but the green pot is more just so i can hang it if i want..... wen i take the green pot away there are a lot of roots sticking out the bottom of the pot

ok things i have are bark and fertilizer which i was instructed to put on once a month........fertilizer...........bark
do i need some of that mose like stuff, not sure on the name, at the moment my bark is soaking in water as i was told to soak it for three dayz

another thing is i have these black marks on this one leaf that appeared wen i nearly drowned her..... although she is starting to look healthier i was just wondering wat causes this for future reference......

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

What you have is a Dendrobium. Most of the plant mass is dead material, and will have to be cut away. I also suspect that most of the roots in the pot are also dead and should be mostly cut away/removed, but a few can be left to anchor the plant.

That new pot is way, way, way too big. The right pot size is one that is just large enough to fit the roots into. But you will probably have to wait until you remove the old mix and most of the dead roots to see what is left and what size pot you need. My guess would be a 4" to 5" pot. To remove the plant from the old pot, flex the sides of the plastic pot to free up the roots, then pull the rootball out. At this point, I would recommend using a sterilized pruning shears to work the old mix out, and prune dead roots as you go. Live roots will be firm, have some thickness to them and be white to creme in color. You might want to put on disposable gloves to handle the roots while removing the old mix. Cut off all dead portions of the plant, those that have lost all of their green color. From the way the pictures look, this should leave you with a very small plant when done.

The bark looks fine, and when put into the pot should be pressed very firmly into the pot. If the plant has some live roots left, the plant should be firm in the pot when you finish the repotting. If the plant wobbles, put a steak in the pot and tie the canes to it to keep the plant from wobbling.

In your very last picture, there is a keiki (baby plant) attached to what looks like a dead cane. Does the keiki have any roots? Your picture isn't focused well, but it looks like there aren't any. Is the cane in this picture firm or soft or even mostly hollow? Normally, a keiki is removed and potted up when it has a few roots a couple/3 inches long. But if the cane it is on is dead, you may want to take it off now. If it is on a dead cane and has no roots itself, you will probably lose the keiki. But you can put the keiki, maybe with a short section of the cane still attached, into a ziplock bag with a little mostly wrung out moss, zip it up, and just wait to see if it make roots in the future. That damage to the keiki looks like it may have been mechanical.

[God.Jr]

wow let me say thank you again for helpin me out, now we know wat it is, i'm so happy,.....

i kinda thought that the pot might be a bit big so i was thinking about maybe just cleaning out the pot it is in and take the smaller one out...... could i still put it on a piece of bark sticking out the bark and moss mix i plan to use,( but with it's roots extending into the bark mix ofcourse ).....other wise thanx for all the help i will be following these directions as best i can....

as for cutting away....*this is quiet a scary thought*.... i am assuming that some of the canes are slowly dieing and not starting to become greener as i may have thought / hoped.......there are one or two i'm sure are dieing one is moisty hollw in some parts, but the others are all still hard and still have traces of green in them.....

the little keiki doe not have any roots commin out it , it's sitting near the top of the cane......the cane it'self still has some small traces of green and is still hard, although it does look like it's on it's way out ( i will try that method and try save it, if it grows roots does that mean i have a new plant and should pot it or something......

another thing that i was wondering was, would it be possible to split this plant in two, if i cut the keiki on the cane which is sitting at the top then there will only be a small keiki and maybe a cane if it's dieing, then there is a huge a where there has been past cut aways *old canes*...

well i will take some pic and try document the process and keep this post updated, thanx again for all the help it was and is really appreciated.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Yes, separate those two halves. That section in the middle where the canes have been cut off is certainly dead, so separating the halves is no problem. Cut off only the material you know is dead. The rest may be on the way out, but you can always remove the dead pieces later, and if the pieces are still firm with a hint of green, that material may be a source of energy for the growing part of the plant, as it is common for a plant to let a piece die off while removing its stored energy.

When you have separated the two haves, and delt with repotting the growing half, take a look at the canes with the keiki. If there are no roots on the main part of that plant, and you have removed the dead portions, you can lay the canes sideways in a pot of wet mix or moss with a couple of the canes in contact with the mix, and just wait for the keiki to produce roots. If that section has roots, just pot it up. But from the color of the canes, I would be willing to bet that there are no roots on that piece of plant. I suspect that this plant has been over watered due to rotted mix, and all the roots, with the possible exception of a few on the latest growth, are rotted and dead. But we will see when you remove the old mix.

[God.Jr]

well i am going to buy all the extras i don't have today like moss and spray guns for misting......there are few other things i may need, for cutting and all that i have pretty much nothing, starting from scratch........

nice one i will def' split them tomorrow while repotting, and i'll try wat you say with the keiki and see if i cann't save it too, that would be madness....

thanx again for all the help...