Repotting Question

[Ben Belton]

I am mostly a Phal person, so I lurk here more than post. This is a complex that is ready to be repotted. Is my only option to bite the bullet and try to get it apart with as little damage as possible or does anyone have any good tips for getting this out and apart without half destroying it? I'm guessing there is nothing more magical with Paphs than with Phals, but I know how to break Phal roots with as little set back as possible. I'm not sure about Paphs.

 

[Ray]

Ben, I'm sure others have their own techniques, but after soaking the rot mass and removing it from the pot, I manually extract as much of the old medium as possible without prying apart the "container" of roots.

I then refill that void with fresh medium, and complete the process normally.

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

I agree, soak that pot in a full basin of water. If you need to actually pull it from it's pot to put it into a larger pot, may I suggest you run something like a frosting spatula around the edge of the pot. That should help a lot. I keep one in the greenhouse just for that purpose. Matter a fact used it a couple of times today to free up some cattleya roots.

 

[CarlG]

After soaking and removing from pot, try sloshing it around in a bucket of water. That tends to loosen up the root mass.

 

[musa]

I agree with the predecessors.
After soaking the roots, squeeze the pot a little bit to loosen the roots from it. As a last possibility (sometimes it is necessary) cut the pot carefully with a gardenscissors. It's best to use gloves because the cut plastic is very sharp.

 

[Dung Lung]

Ben, I'm sure others have their own techniques, but after soaking the rot mass and removing it from the pot, I manually extract as much of the old medium as possible without prying apart the "container" of roots.

I then refill that void with fresh medium, and complete the process normally.

what do you do for the live roots？as far as i know, they ll die shortly after repotting！
someone told me to cut "all of them", leaving about an inch, and then repot.

 

[monocotman]

You leave all the live roots intact. Do NOT cut them off. They are the life blood of the plant and in some ways are more important than the leaves. If you cut them off then you set back the plant many years and it may die.
I do not know where you got this advice from but the live roots will be fine after repotting.
The only roots that may die after repotting are those that grew initially outside of the compost. This is much more common in genera such as cattleyas and very rare in paphs.
If you feel the individual roots after removing the compost there will be some that are darker and squishy, these are rotten and need removing with a pair of scissors at the base of the plant.
After checking all the roots, drop the plant into a new pot and fill carefully with the compost of your choice,
David

 

[musa]

David is absolutely right, intact roots should never been cut, for paphs don't have as much storing capacity of water and nutrition like other orchids with bulbs or fleshy leaves.
Michael

 

[abax]

I just cut the pot down the sides in a couple of places and slide
the plant out. The old roots that are brown and out of the
pot probably need cut off anyway. I use clay pots exclusively
and I don't mind at all to take a hammer to the pot to get
the roots out undamaged.

 

[richgarrison]

That's a great looking root mass you have there!!!