I bought an orchid a month or so ago. It had three flower spikes.
One was in flower the other two were in bud.

The flowers were pink phals and they faded within a week or so. About
two weeks later the buds started to open and much to my surprise they
are white phals. Obviously I have two plants in one pot. It's a 6"
pot and the plants are so close together that I didn't notice - or look
that carefully.

The problem is the pot is completely filled with roots. There are so
many that it's sometimes hard to figure out if the plant needs to be
watered because there is so little soil to test.

Also the pink phal plant seems to be doing poorly. Some leaves have
turned yellow and the others don't look all that healthy. I have cut
off the flower spike which stopped blooming and had no buds.

I don't want to disturb the white phal which is doing very well and has
two spikes with lots of buds.

Should I leave things alone for now, just removing leaves from pink
phal? Should I try somehow to remove the pink phal plant from pot? I
doubt I could do that without cutting roots from the other plant. What
about all the roots growing on top of the pot? Looks like a bowl of
spaghetti. Many roots are clearly dead.

I'm a new orchid enthusiast. I know I love them but don't know a great
deal about repotting - actually more like next to nothing about it. I
did get the feeling from other postings that it's not a good idea to
repot a plant that's in bloom.

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jane

Jane,

You are right to not disturb the blooming plant, if you want to enjoy the
blossoms longer.

However, my guess is that the medium is quite decomposed and your current
watering regimen is working with the old medium to suffocate the roots -
which is probably why you're seeing yellowing in the leaves of the pink on.

My advice would be to unpot the plants, and repot them - separately - into
fresh medium that allows plenty of air flow around the root system. You may
lose the while blossoms sooner, but at the rate you're going, you're risking
losing the plants altogether.

--
..
Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and lots of free info!

wrote in message
oups.com...
I bought an orchid a month or so ago. It had three flower spikes.
One was in flower the other two were in bud.

The flowers were pink phals and they faded within a week or so. About
two weeks later the buds started to open and much to my surprise they
are white phals. Obviously I have two plants in one pot. It's a 6"
pot and the plants are so close together that I didn't notice - or look
that carefully.

The problem is the pot is completely filled with roots. There are so
many that it's sometimes hard to figure out if the plant needs to be
watered because there is so little soil to test.

Also the pink phal plant seems to be doing poorly. Some leaves have
turned yellow and the others don't look all that healthy. I have cut
off the flower spike which stopped blooming and had no buds.

I don't want to disturb the white phal which is doing very well and has
two spikes with lots of buds.

Should I leave things alone for now, just removing leaves from pink
phal? Should I try somehow to remove the pink phal plant from pot? I
doubt I could do that without cutting roots from the other plant. What
about all the roots growing on top of the pot? Looks like a bowl of
spaghetti. Many roots are clearly dead.

I'm a new orchid enthusiast. I know I love them but don't know a great
deal about repotting - actually more like next to nothing about it. I
did get the feeling from other postings that it's not a good idea to
repot a plant that's in bloom.

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jane

Thanks Ray.

I decided to remove the dying plant. I removed the leaves and as much
of the stem as I could. I did not touch the roots since I can't tell
which plant they belong to.

Once the plant was out I was able to get a better feel for the soil
under the roots. It feels like there is quite a bit of good soil.

I've waited six months to have an orchid in bloom and I just didn't
want to lose the white phal blossoms. Once it's done blooming - if it
survives - I'll see about repotting it on it's own.

I'm assuming that the roots of the plant I remove will probably die?
If that's so then perhaps I won't need to repot the healthy plant since
there really is plenty of soil.

Guess we'll see. Right now I'm enjoying the beautiful blooms and happy
about the 6 or 7 buds that are growing larger.

Ray Barkalow wrote:
Jane,

You are right to not disturb the blooming plant, if you want to enjoy the
blossoms longer.

However, my guess is that the medium is quite decomposed and your current
watering regimen is working with the old medium to suffocate the roots -
which is probably why you're seeing yellowing in the leaves of the pink on.

My advice would be to unpot the plants, and repot them - separately - into
fresh medium that allows plenty of air flow around the root system. You may
lose the while blossoms sooner, but at the rate you're going, you're risking
losing the plants altogether.

--
.
Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and lots of free info!

wrote in message
oups.com...
I bought an orchid a month or so ago. It had three flower spikes.
One was in flower the other two were in bud.

The flowers were pink phals and they faded within a week or so. About
two weeks later the buds started to open and much to my surprise they
are white phals. Obviously I have two plants in one pot. It's a 6"
pot and the plants are so close together that I didn't notice - or look
that carefully.

The problem is the pot is completely filled with roots. There are so
many that it's sometimes hard to figure out if the plant needs to be
watered because there is so little soil to test.

Also the pink phal plant seems to be doing poorly. Some leaves have
turned yellow and the others don't look all that healthy. I have cut
off the flower spike which stopped blooming and had no buds.

I don't want to disturb the white phal which is doing very well and has
two spikes with lots of buds.

Should I leave things alone for now, just removing leaves from pink
phal? Should I try somehow to remove the pink phal plant from pot? I
doubt I could do that without cutting roots from the other plant. What
about all the roots growing on top of the pot? Looks like a bowl of
spaghetti. Many roots are clearly dead.

I'm a new orchid enthusiast. I know I love them but don't know a great
deal about repotting - actually more like next to nothing about it. I
did get the feeling from other postings that it's not a good idea to
repot a plant that's in bloom.

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jane

On 7 Nov 2006 05:41:09 -0800, wrote:

I'm assuming that the roots of the plant I remove will probably die?
If that's so then perhaps I won't need to repot the healthy plant since
there really is plenty of soil.

Guess we'll see. Right now I'm enjoying the beautiful blooms and happy
about the 6 or 7 buds that are growing larger.

Jane -
The problem is the plant should NOT be in "soil". IF the Orchid mix
under the Phal feels like garden soil it is way past gone. You should
repot the phal to keep this one alive. You may loose a few blooms, or
you may not. Many phals respond, even when in bloom, to having fresh
mix. Sorry you felt you had to sacrifice the pink.

This bloom could be the plants attempt to set seed before it dies.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/orchids

Susan Erickson wrote:
On 7 Nov 2006 05:41:09 -0800, wrote:

I'm assuming that the roots of the plant I remove will probably die?
If that's so then perhaps I won't need to repot the healthy plant since
there really is plenty of soil.

Guess we'll see. Right now I'm enjoying the beautiful blooms and happy
about the 6 or 7 buds that are growing larger.

Jane -
The problem is the plant should NOT be in "soil". IF the Orchid mix
under the Phal feels like garden soil it is way past gone. You should
repot the phal to keep this one alive. You may loose a few blooms, or
you may not. Many phals respond, even when in bloom, to having fresh
mix. Sorry you felt you had to sacrifice the pink.

This bloom could be the plants attempt to set seed before it dies.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/orchids


Unless that 'soil' is a peat or coir based potting mix... That is
perfectly fine as a medium. But I worry that there is 'plenty of soil'.
Even if it is a reasonable potting mix, too much of any potting mix is
bad, very bad... You want to under-pot your plant, not over-pot it.
Less potting mix means the pot dries out faster, and more even drying
(the center of a big pot o' mix never dries out).

--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

Did you disagree with the advice offered?
Joe T

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jane

Sorry, guess by using the word "soil" I confused the issue. I believe
it's mostly peat.
In any case it's the same medium that another phal of mine is in. That
phal had over 18 blooms and bloomed for 7 months. It rested for two
months and now it's growing a new spike. So I'm not worried about the
medium.

Susan Erickson wrote:
On 7 Nov 2006 05:41:09 -0800, wrote:

I'm assuming that the roots of the plant I remove will probably die?
If that's so then perhaps I won't need to repot the healthy plant since
there really is plenty of soil.

Guess we'll see. Right now I'm enjoying the beautiful blooms and happy
about the 6 or 7 buds that are growing larger.

Jane -
The problem is the plant should NOT be in "soil". IF the Orchid mix
under the Phal feels like garden soil it is way past gone. You should
repot the phal to keep this one alive. You may loose a few blooms, or
you may not. Many phals respond, even when in bloom, to having fresh
mix. Sorry you felt you had to sacrifice the pink.

This bloom could be the plants attempt to set seed before it dies.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/orchids

Joe,

I don't know enough about orchids yet to agree or disagree. That's why
I asked for help. From what I can see the people on this newsgroup are
very well informed and also very helpful.

Jane

jtill wrote:
Did you disagree with the advice offered?
Joe T

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jane

I live in Thailand and a friend recently gave me some orchids which we
wired around a tree and the roots quickly attached themselves to the
bark of the tree enabling the wire to be removed. The have no soil or
peat and as we have abundant rainfall most of the year only require
some watering during the dry season. Some others I have are growing
attached to coconut husks which have the ability to retain moisture and
require infrequent watering. There is another orchid in a clay pot
which is also growing in shredded coconut husks. Just thought I would
pass on what little I am aware of here, but I am no expert, just
appreciate the beauty of the native plants here which there are many.