With its arching stems of showy flowers, the Phalaenopsis is one of nature’s most beautiful orchids.
After 3 years of pretty amazing growth, the purple phal I inherited from my mother was climbing out of its container: the planting medium was so clogged with tree leaf debris, the roots had nowhere to go but up and over the side of the basket. Time to repot!
You never know what you’ll find when you shake away the old bark and perlite, so I was relieved to see this!
Healthy phalaenopsis roots are a plump whitish-grey and the newest ones have little green growing tips. “Bad” roots are brittle, brown and withered looking. Here’s a close-up to aid in the identification:
There are two things I suggest doing before repotting, and the first is pretty obvious: trim away the damaged/rotting brown roots until the new root zone looks like this:
Some orchid growers suggest cutting back the older, healthy roots (aka those without growing tips) to 4″ long, but I don’t do this for one simple reason: it isn’t natural! Phalaenopsis are epiphytes growing on tree branches without benefit of soil. In the wild, roots that aren’t acting as anchors, continue to grow and hang loose.
Phals grown in pots are very sensitive to salt build-up from water and fertilizers. Use this opportunity to flush the roots REALLY well.under rapidly running water. If your pruning was extensive, you may be able to place the plant back in it’s original pot; scrub it thoroughly first!
So you’ve done all this, and you’re finally ready to pot up! Place your orchid in the new container with the base of the lowest leaf about ½” below the pot rim, like so:
As you can see, I’ve fanned the roots out but haven’t used any medium this time: this is strictly because my zone is compatible with year round outdoor growing, and I’ll be hanging the container in my Bauhinia tree.
For those of you repotting phals as houseplants, I suggest spreading the roots over a layer of several inches of Better Gro’s Orchid Bark and/or Special Orchid Mix:
Keep adding medium until the mix is ½ to ¾ inch below the top of the pot. This helps facilitate rooting into the medium, not over the rim. Using your fingers, tamp the bark down lightly until it reaches the base of the lowest leaf.
The last step is to slowly water your orchid, with emphasis on the word SLOWLY! After all your hard work, you don’t want the bark jumping and flushing all over the place, right? Yup! This happened to me! 😮
Re-potting orchids isn’t as scary as I thought it was a few years ago! In fact, it’s really pretty simple!
Until next time…..
🙂 🙂 🙂
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16 thoughts on “Phalaenopsis Roots and Proper Re-potting Procedure”
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GREAT POST! I have never grown orchids, but I may just have to give it a try.
You should! Knowing what I do about all the other plants you grow, orchids will be a snap for you!
The photos are superb and the information you shared was exceptional. I am always looking for tips and inspiration, thank you.
Thanks, Charlie!
Do you grow a lot of orchids?
I have never succeeded in keeping orchids more than a couple of years (in pots, in my case). They intimidate me a little probably because I don’t know how to care for them. Thanks for the tips.
You’re welcome!
Although it seems counter-intuitive, the minute you bring an orchid home from the store, it’s a good idea to pop it out of the original container and examine it for dead roots or any kind of rot/fungus. Some of the plants being sold aren’t of the best quality and are pretty much doomed from the start, UNLESS you catch the problems early and put them in good clean planting medium
This is a great share… for which I thank you… I love orchards and some make it all look so easy to grow… I won’t buy one if I think it will die at home and if I have no idea how to look after it… but just the repotting would frighten the life out of me…
I was scared silly the first time I re-potted one! I actually printed instructions from some online site and kept referring to them every two seconds. 🙂 For real!
Thanks Karen, I’ve sent this to my orchid loving friend!
You’re welcome! I hope she finds it helpful!
I have several orchids that could stand to be repotted. Oh, my to-do list!
I’ve read they like being pot-bound and actually bloom better that way. Have they done well for you?
I think I will continue to admire these beauties from afar. My skills aren’t up to the task of maintaining them in the way they need to thrive. 😉
They take a little getting used to…and each one (even those in the same variety) is highly unique in terms of how they react to similar conditions! So yes, they are a bit mentally intensive. 😉
That is a beautiful orchid. I always feel they are too delicate for me to try growing.
Thank you! they’re tougher than I thought they’d be! I’m not a big fan of orchids really…I’ve gotten most of them via other people’s toss-offs and you know how it is with gardener types: I felt obligated to nurse them back to health and now I’m sort of stuck with them!