An easier way of removing sphagnum from fine roots

[cluelessmidwesterner]

Ok. As a newbie I know sphagnum moss as "stand alone" media only last a year or so especially when dealing with an Ocidium orchid that needs its roots moist. So when I purchased my Oncidium Heaven Scent 'Sweet Baby' two weeks ago at a booth sponsored by a local Orchid society at a garden show, I knew I'd be repotting it. The label stated it had been potted up in May of last year. It had started dropping it blooms (change in enviroment) so I knew that should get my "big girl" panties on an get on with the job.

I had already decided that I would be moving it to s/h since my other NoID Oncidium Inter-generic is making the transition fairly smoothly. So I gloved up, put down newspaper on my work surface, had my cutting tool and a pair of needle nose tweezers disinfected. I squeezed the pot to loosen the roots and gave a gentle pull on the plant to remove it from the pot. After several more squeezes and gentle tugs it finally came out of the pot. The root ball was one **huge** tangle of roots. I started to massage the bottom of the root ball but moss was wrapped up in the roots that nothing much fell. So then I started with the tweezers figuring once I got passed the roots ringing the bottom of the ball the center roots would dead and that would make removal t easier. Nope. I spent three hours with tweezers plucking bits of moss from the roots, de-tangling roots, rinsing roots under the tap and tweezing out more moss. The center was a mass of viable roots (white, firm). Very few dead roots.

My question for more experienced growers is for the next time I come across a similar situation (if I should ever be that lucky) what would be a better and more efficient way of removing sphagnum moss from so many roots with minimal damage?