Phrag help, should I separate after bloom? Growing like mad.

[krienschmidt]

Hi everyone. I have 2 lovely Phrags. growing and blooming like mad. One large pot has 3 growths in it. The original one from when I got the plant last spring and 2 new sprouted over this past year. Two new ones are in glorious bloom. After blooms stop, now what do I do? Should I attempt to separate it? If so suggestions on doing this?? I don't want to kill my gorgeous plants!!

As always Thank You for idea.

[wintergirl]

I would keep them all together and not split them. A plant with 3 growths will be stronger than splitting the growths. 3 is not that many in my opinion.

[PaphMadMan]

Never divide a Phrag into smaller sections than 2 mature growths plus a new start at the minimum, and even then it may set the plant back for a season. And only divide or repot when plant has active new growth, if at all possible. The same goes for all sympodial orchids really. There's really no reason you should divide at all until the plant is too big to manage otherwise, or you want to propagate a plant that is big enough, which yours is not.

[krienschmidt]

Thank You, they stay as they are!

[Zabeta]

Jealous! What are your conditions like?

[MrHappyRotter]

How do you grow your phrags? Do you know (and can you provide) IDs on them?

You can repot a lot of the wet growing phrags at almost any time of year, from late winter to fall, regardless of whether they're blooming or not, and regardless of whether they have new growths or not.

If they're blooming, then repotting is likely to reduce the lifespan of the spike as you might expect, and generally speaking you might as well cut the spike and force the plant to expend its energy into growing.

The reason having a new growth isn't necessarily as important for repotting as it is with a lot of other orchids is because even older growths will readily create new roots, create new root branches, and even reactive dormant root tips pretty readily.

For the longer petalled crosses with caudatum and its relatives that prefer to grow without constant moisture, however, it's better to err on the side of caution and wait until you see it's producing new growths.

All that being said, I recommend holding off on making divisions. If you've got room, let the plants grow out. The bigger they are, the better they bloom. You'll see more spikes, possibly more flowers and branching spikes, bigger blooms, brighter color, and better shape -- basically everything improves as the plants get older and larger. Once you have a big enough plant for a couple multigrowth divisions, then you can consider dividing it. Sometimes plants will even self divide.