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Step by Step Tutorial: How to Repot a Phalaenopsis
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Oct 3, 2024
In this longer video, you'll learn how to repot a Phalaenopsis orchid, what are the signs it needs to be repoted, how to know what roots need cut, and how to verify that it is firm in the pot. If you want the full explanation of this video in writing, go to https://orchideria.com/repot-an-orchid/ On Orchideria.com, you can find more in-depth guides and all the access to our information, tutorials, guides, and much more... all for free! Happy Cultivating! ______________________ HASHTAGS: #orchidcare #orchid #Orchideria #AmandaMatthews _______________________ TIMESTAMPS: Since this is a long video, you can jump to the next chapters by clicking the section below. 0:00 Introduction 0:36 Step 1: Know when to Repot 3:55 Materials for Repot 5:52 Step 2: Prepare your Potting Media 8:02 Step 3: Remove Old Media 9:57 Step 4: Clean up the Roots
View Video Transcript
0:00
One of the most difficult things to do in orchid care is repotting an orchid
0:05
And that's only difficult because it's probably not something that you've done before
0:10
It's something that is totally new. And when it's new, it just freaks us out
0:15
So on this video, I'm going to go over the steps that you need to take when you repot your orchid
0:21
and when to know it's the right time to repot your orchid
0:30
The first thing you want to do is to make sure that it's the right time to repot this orchid
0:35
that you're not going to go out on a repotting spree and repot everything in your collection at the same time
0:41
Repotting is the one thing that makes us nervous, but it's also the one thing that can make orchids extremely sensitive to their environment
0:50
and often put off a bloom for that year. So make sure that your orchid isn't the right time to repot
0:58
there are several indications that it is the right or wrong time to repot and you can go through
1:04
one by one for example oh gosh yeah take a sniff of that if it's strong and you know there's a good
1:15
earthly smell and there's a not so good earth smell that is a not so good earth smell that means
1:22
it's time to repot you can already smell that potting media going sour it's not so good earth smell it's not so good
1:28
something you want. The second sign is if you press down on your potting media and it sinks. I mean
1:35
it's decaying already in there. If you do a repot right, it shouldn't press down. It shouldn't
1:43
there'd be no resistance. See, when I press down right here, the entire orchid just moves
1:51
That means that all this material has been in here so long that it's decaying in the pot. It's not
1:57
holding its firmness anymore. The third reason is that your orchid is not adapting well to your
2:04
potting media. Now I chose this orchid to repot first because it's a phallinopsis and I want to start
2:09
this repotting series with a fall. I'll go through the other orchids in time. So with this phalanopsis
2:16
I know that these roots are bad inside the pot and how do I know that? Well, the leaves are starting to
2:22
split. They're wrinkly. They're dehydrated. I mean, the orchid is. is wobbling in the pot. You can see that. This on the outside of the pot, don't worry about that
2:32
That's normal, especially with terracotta pots. But you can see there's visible signs of dehydration
2:39
If you repotted this orchid in less than a year, don't repot. Give it time to react to this new
2:47
potting media. Orchids take time to adapt to really feel their environment. So if your leaves are going
2:54
dehydrated like two weeks after you repot, that's normal. They had a lot done with their roots
3:01
They had a lot that they didn't like, they know, and they don't like to be messed with. So give it time
3:07
If they've been in that pot for more than a year and they're still dehydrated, then it's maybe
3:12
time to change that potting media. Sickness. If you know your orchid is sick and it's not
3:19
recuperating and you know that you've tried all the products. Maybe the problem is in the roots and it's not adapting because it doesn't have a good root system
3:30
So you have to take it out and look at those roots. And that's what we're going to do in this video because this orchid is not sick probably
3:39
but I bet there's hardly any good roots on it. So that's why I chose this one
3:43
If I chose a nice, healthy plump phalanopsis, there wouldn't be much to show
3:48
But when you repot, make sure you have all the ingredients necessary before you start
3:54
because it is a pain to start the whole process. Oh no, I forgot this. And then you go call a store
4:02
you have to go out and get it. So make sure that you have all the ingredients necessary. So the
4:07
things that you'll need are a pair of scissors, something to sterilize those scissors. It could be
4:14
a flame. It could be alcohol. It could be any type of thing that will actually clean those
4:20
blades of those pruners. Cinnamon. A fungicide or a back. My suggestion is fizzan because that's available for me
4:29
I know a lot of places in Europe do not sell that. You can try what is in your area too
4:36
I'm going to use sphagnum moss and you will need distilled water or reverse osmosis water or whatever type of water that you use to repot
4:46
So those are your ingredients. Now if you don know what type of pot to pick I suggest this video up here because I go over how to choose the right pot for you I know this orchid has sick roots so I probably going to cut them all off
5:02
In a normal situation, what would I do? I would measure an inch or two, usually for phalanopsis it's an inch or 2 or 2.5 centimeters larger or wider than the original pot
5:17
If you don't have pots, I strongly suggest to go to the orchid supply store because
5:22
especially for their mini fowls, they have the little bitty cups. I mean, pots, these are awesome
5:29
These are so hard to find. So check those out. So I'm going to probably using one of these three
5:35
depending on the size of what's salvable inside my pot. Don't always go with one pot because
5:41
sometimes it doesn't fit. Sometimes, I mean, I could be totally wrong that this orchid does have good
5:46
it's the problem might be somewhere else inside my potting media i'm going to be adding orchid bark
5:58
and know your brand of orchid bark because some have to be soaked before but the one i'm using
6:05
from orchiata it doesn't it's you can actually use it straight out of the bag if you want to sift it you
6:11
can i didn't find i had to the next thing i'm going to add is charcoal
6:16
Spagnum comes very dry in the bag
6:30
So what you want to do is hydrate that for at least 30 minutes in water
6:35
Now I've had mine soaking for a little bit. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull this up and squeeze that water out
6:45
I do not want this water inside the potting media. I use a lot of sphagnum just because my climate inside my office here is so dry
6:58
You need to measure these out according to your climate. So don't go following my recipe or I don't even know if you can call it a recipe
7:08
You need to find what I was going to squeeze it here. You need to find what works for you in your environment
7:14
I add usually about half bark and half sphagnum. That is a lot, but, you know, I do keep my air conditioner on
7:22
I do keep my heater on all times of the year. So you're going to want to mix this extremely well
7:29
You do not want to add big chunks, small chunks, big chunks, small chunks
7:33
For example, big chunks of bark and then smaller chunks of pearlite or smaller chunks of charcoal
7:38
Because what happens is in between the bigger chunks where air is supposed to flow and the water is supposed to
7:44
to drain. Those smaller pieces of purlite and charcoal are going to fill those gaps. So you're
7:50
going to have a pot that is extremely low in airflow and it's going to retain water a lot more
7:58
So make sure all your ingredients are the same size. So my potting mix is ready to go and now it's time
8:05
to clean this orchid. If you have a plastic pot, what you're going to do, you're going to squeeze
8:11
it all the way around, go around squeezing this pot so that you're applying pressure on the roots
8:18
to kind of shift just a little, not enough pressure to break them. You don't want to break the roots
8:25
You just want to apply that pressure. Now on the terracotta plot, that doesn't work. So what you're
8:29
going to do on a terracotta pot is soak it. Just soak the whole pot and water. And this is actually
8:34
a good idea too because when the water interacts with the roots, they're going to change colors
8:40
and that's the easiest way to know if the root is alive or dead
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Once you squeeze it, you're going to note that the orchid comes out a little bit more
8:50
Now, mine is not. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to slowly pull out the sides of this
8:58
and go around loosening this potting media. Be as gentle as you can on this phase
9:09
because the orchid has no idea what's going on. The roots are probably attached
9:15
And oh, the smell. How? Aha. There it came out. And this is, yeah, even the potting media is stuck in that
9:30
The pot that you had, you can reuse. Just clean it out very well
9:36
So put that away. Oh gosh the smell So let get rid of all this old potting media I mean even the sphagnum moss is turning black I don know if you can see that So get rid of this and throw it away If you want to use it for your compost pot this is great
9:54
but it doesn't really serve for anything else. Now to the cleanup. And this is exactly what I had
9:59
expected. Look at those roots. What you want to do is go through and really clean out all that sphagnum
10:05
See this long root here. This is the velloman on the root. It's a thicker outer
10:12
layer. The actual root is this one right here. Thinner is like a little wire and the velloman covers it
10:21
See the vellumon you can take off like this. This vellumon does. It allows water to enter the root
10:27
system but not exit. So that's why if you water over water, the water just keeps going in
10:35
The vellumann works like this because orchids aren't made to go in pots. They're actually
10:40
made to go, you know, most of them on trees. So they need to maximize the surface area that they
10:46
have that comes in contact with water. That's why they have this velloman. And even in the humidity
10:53
in the air, the velloman will pull that humidity in and keep it in the root. And then the root
10:59
will bring it back up to the stem of the orchids. So you're going to go through here and you're
11:03
going to look at each one of these roots. If it's green, leave it alone. If it's yellow
11:10
So, leave it alone. Yellow roots just mean that the sunlight has not entered the chlorophyll near them
11:17
So the yellow roots are probably going to be in the middle of the pot. Leave those alone. It's the brown
11:22
roots that you're worried about. So you're going to go through each brown root and you're going to
11:27
squeeze. If there's resistance, keep it. It's alive. The vellumann is actually dead, but the root is
11:35
alive. So you're going to go through squeezing like this is just paper
11:40
I mean, this is gone. This is brown here, but green here, and it's even starting a new root tip here
11:51
That's perfectly fine. Leave it. This one is brown. No resistance whatsoever
11:57
Even when I squeeze it, it has a paper bag crunchy sound to it
12:02
Take that off. See, this one here, it looks kind of dead, but I squeeze it down and it's firm
12:06
It's firm as a rock. Leave it. It's fine. So I'm going to go through and do that to each one of these
12:13
Now, this poor orchid probably won't have much left after I'm done with it because it is in a horrible state
12:19
For these little thin wires here, I do not cut these off
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I leave them. I leave them on. Even though the velloman might be dead, there are some authors who say that this thin, I think it's called steel, but I have to check on that, that it's still alive
12:37
So keep that. It's better to lose the vellum and it won't absorb, of course, as much without the vellum, but it might absorb something. So better to keep it, it's not going to decompose inside that orchid pot. You might be asking, why don't I just leave this vellumon on inside the pot
12:57
Well, the problem is this vellumant right here is already dead. There's no reviving this. Once it's dead, it's dead. In nature, this is going to be able to
13:07
to be on a tree like that and if the root dies it just falls off so it's not going to stay there
13:13
and decompose and and attract all these microbes and bacteria and fungus that are going to decompose
13:22
even more it's just going to fall off but in your orchid pot it doesn't fall off it there's nowhere
13:29
to fall so it just stays in the pot and this will attract all kinds of bacteria and
13:37
your pH is going to drop rapidly and then your whole orchid is going to suffer
13:43
So now your orchid is at this state right here. Now that's still mushy dead. Hold on
13:50
Oh no that's squishy squishy take it off. Looks like this was a root but it didn't make it
13:55
And that's all I have left. I'm going to get this orchid and I'm going to spray it with my fungicide
14:03
Now I use fizaum 20 as I mentioned before. What you don't want to do is use hydrogen peroxide
14:10
Hydrogen peroxide is not the best and I'm not going to explain why, but you can see a video up here about that
14:18
And stay away from hydrogen peroxide unless you're just cleaning the leaves
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The leaves, it's fine, it's perfect. Keep using it. On the roots, hydrogen peroxide isn't the best
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I am going to spray it in the middle here because I see a little bit. brown spot Aha now you decide to work Thank you You might see like a blackening here If you can take that ever so carefully and remove that That awesome What you don want to do is open a new cut in the stem So make sure like if your nails are really sharp that you not hurting this You know and you can actually get in and remove any spots And of course you know if you want to use gloves you can I don Do wash your hands
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So now it's time to put this in the pot. Going to measure your orchid inside the pot
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Make sure the roots are like spread out. They're not all in one place and do this gently
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You don't want like all the roots on the left or all the roots on the right or all the roots in the middle
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Try to spread them out just a little bit. And you can see here what I'm trying to do
15:30
is get the height of this pot exactly right. So here's the stem of my orchid
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the base of the stem right here. I don't want that down in the potting media and I don't want it
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way up high either. I want it just level to the top of the potting media. So that's where I want my
15:51
orchid and I'm going to now put my potting media around it. So here I have my orkin and I
15:59
gently place the potting media around it and you might think, okay, I'm done. No, you're not. You're going to move it
16:06
and you're going to tap it. Give it a little shake like a hurricane shake and squeeze it down
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Is this going to hurt the roots? Yeah, it is. But you need to press that potting media
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down and make sure it's stable. And see, like right here, I now know I can add more
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And just keep that potting media press down tight. You want this tight
16:33
Like a snug kid in the bed, you know, get those blanket, snug those blankets around those feet. I did not stake this because if this orchid is going to send out
16:43
a flower spike in the state that it's in right now, it won't be the best for it. So I'm going to
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forego the flower spike and cut it off while it's in development so it can really focus on getting
16:56
new leaves. I prefer this orchid to have nice healthy leaves than to have a flower. The potting
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media is right level at the base of the orchid. It's not higher, it's not lower. If you go higher
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that potting media is going to come into contact with the orchid and that plant cell tissue on the
17:16
outside is going to decay. It's not made to be in, you know, touching something else. It's not. It's
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made to be on that tree with airflow all around it. It's made to be free and it doesn't like
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close contact with anything. So get that potting media away from the sim
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There's nothing wrong, which is coming in with your finger and moving it away
17:39
So this is probably higher and that's lower. That's fine. As long as your orchid is stable
17:44
This leaf here, because it's in contact with the rim of the pot, is probably going to have issues on that
17:52
But this leaf is going to fall off in a couple months anyway, so I'm not worried about that
17:58
So here is your orchid. Should you water it now or not
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not. This also is a divided opinion. Some people say yes, water it now. Other people say wait
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it's not worth it. If your roots were fine and healthy inside that pot and you did very little
18:15
cutting on them, water it now. That orchid will need the water to recuperate. Water is healthy
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Water is like the number one medicine in the world. If you could just take away all the medicines
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and just drink water, same applies for the plant. So use that water, water it now, water at abundance
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and make sure your potting media drains well because we really squished it in there
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So you want to make sure that it drains. So that's how you repot a phalanopsis
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I won't need to repot her for the next three to four years. And she can grow inside this pot well
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She's not wobbly. And I hope she recuperates with these dehydrated leaves now that she's got rid of all that old
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sour media. One of the first things that you need to know is when to repotting
19:02
your orchid. You do not want to go out on a repotting spree and repot everything in your collection
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If you like this video, please give it a like, but don't go away yet because I want to suggest
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these two videos right here. One's about choosing your potting media. The other is about choosing
19:24
the right pot for you. And if you have any questions, please add them in the comments below
19:30
and I hope to see you in the next video. Happy cultivating
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