Repotting my orchid has been postponed and procrastinated for so long that I even feel ashamed about it in front of my orchid. If memory serves me well, the last time repotting was done was in 2019. I remember having an attempt to get it done in December last year but my flower started to grow a stem to grow flowers and in that case it's not smart to disturb it. So I put it aside, thinking let it flower and then have another attempt.
The flowering was a disaster as I got one flower and the rest just withered before opening. There's a possibility that it was too hot for the flower, so I need to move it to a different place to be safe.
Before starting, I watched this video to be sure I know what I'm doing and I'm not damaging the flower even more.
First of all, we are advised to wear gloves as there could be toxic elements on the roots. I'm always using gloves when gardening because I'd like to protect my hands, so for me it was an obvious choice anyway.
When repotting, I'm usually opting to use a new pot and the required mix or orchid bark for orchids. This is the orchid bark I'm usually using and it is good, I can assure you.
And this is my poor orchid. Usually has 4 leaves but now there are only 3, of which one is badly damaged. There's a newborn leaf as well, that I hope to see growing.
These roots have already been trying to escape the pot and have been able to, because the pot is bigger than the vase it is in. This is why the new pot is the right size this time.
And now hold on, fasten your seat belt as this is how my orchid looked like inside, after taking it out of the pot and eliminating the mix has been in. Now this is everything but healthy. Roots should be green and thick, while here most of the root are dead dry already and if not, then yellowish.
Dry and unhealthy roots, what can I say? This is the proof that repotting and cleaning the roots as inevitable.
There are two ways to clean the roots, according to the video. One is to cut these damaged, dried roots off. The other is to clean, or peal off the outer part of the roots and keep the rest. The lady in the video says she's using the second option and I remember doing that myself as well last time when I did the repotting.
This is what was left of the roots after cleaning the dries and dead parts.
And this is the mess left after cleaning the roots, that is in the garbage already.
And here it is, with the roots cleaned, in a new pot, with new mix added.
Repotting is never without stress and in this case I have a real reason to be stressed. The video says soak the roots in water that has some cleaning agent added, which I didn't do as I don't have that. Instead I watered it as I usually do, putting the pot in water for 10 minutes.
That damaged leaf will be gone is a few weeks, it can't be saved, but it's ok, there will still be two leaves left, plus the small one. I'm going to monitor closely its evolution and hope it is strong enough to survive.
Lesson learned, repotting should be done more often as the result shows it's not healthy to postpone it. Now fingers crossed.
