Repotting Petaluma

As usual, Petaluma came in a clear plastic pot packed tightly in Sphagnum Moss.  Upon outward inspection, the roots looked great, and since I did not have a pot at home that was adequate, I chose to wait and get a good one.  In the meantime, I did cut numerous slits into the existing pot for extra aeration and removed some of the moss from the top.

Petaluma

For Audrey, I was forced to shop locally and found a pot that was a bit too big for her.  I rigged the pot as described in my previous post Repotting a Blooming Orchid.  Since Audrey is a mini Phal, I was really nervous that the pot would simply be too large for her despite my best efforts.  Now, a few weeks later, she's doing just fine, but I didn't want to push my luck again.  I think I just got lucky, and she is a little trooper!


Carousel Pot
I must say that Repotme.com is excellent as far as customer service.  I ordered my supplies on Saturday, and had them delivered on Tuesday.  I will definitely be ordering from them again based on how quickly they deliver.  They even threw in a couple of freebies in the parcel, which was very nice.  I am definitely impressed! Last year, I ordered supplies from numerous pet supplies vendors; some being big chain stores, and other local mom and pop establishments, and no one was as fast as Repotme.com without charging an exorbitant shipping fee.

So this is the new pot.  Very pretty!

You really can't appreciate the bubbling pattern within each of the slits

You can see the bubbling in this picture of one of the pink pots.


The Repotting Process
I wanted to seize the opportunity to try something a bit different, and decided to go with a more traditional approach.  Petaluma is a standard size Phalaeonopsis so the root system is much larger and fits nicely in a 5 inch pot.  There will be no more worries about the media not drying up fast enough or not draining well.  I am also very excited to try the new clear Orchitop Carousel Pot I ordered.  I also plan to start fertilizing 'weakly weekly' (a consistent watered down weekly regimen and a monthly over-saturation of the media in the pot to remove any salts that have accumulated). 

Having learned from my previous mistakes with Audrey, I went ahead and soaked the bark mix overnight eventhough the packaging does not specifically indicate this to be necessary:

I just find that the bark mix I have been using in the office, which wasn't pre-soaked, dries up way too quickly, and it's been a couple of weeks since potting the plant. While in the office environment, during the week, this is not a huge issue, but during the weekends, when I am not around to water Audrey if she were to dry out too much, it's a real concern.  There have been a few instances I have returned to the office after the weekend, and found that her leaves were a bit wrinkly.  Luckily, they plump right up after watering her generously.  At home, this would be easier to manage, but I want to get into the habit of doing things the tried and true way instead of having to stumble about.

I was lucky that Petaluma really does have gorgeous roots:

This makes it easier to keep her healthy rather than trying to bring her back to health, and makes the whole repotting process a lot easier.  There was minimal trimming of a few dried out ends, but all the other roots were salvageable.

After I carefully placed the roots in the pot and packed in the bark mix into the pot, I staked the spikes, but they kept overlapping each other so I used the strawberry cookie cutter my youngest daughter gave me to keep the spikes separated:

Actually, the cookie cutter was a trade; I traded her for the complimentary pink butterfly stake clip I received from Repotme.com.  And here is the final product from the front:

And from the side:

Ta-da!!!