roots stuck to pot?

[diego_p]

i recieved an oncidium sharry baby last week from a friend in MN. this plant is in a clay pot with sphag moss (as far as i can see) really i dont mind it much i think it adds some variety, but i preferr to see how the roots are doing.
so when i attempted to pull the plant out it would barely budge. i stopped trying when on of the bulbs began wiggling more than i would like.
doe anyone know what i can do? have the roots grown attached to the pot?
it really sucks that i can't see into the pot, at the roots. any information would be appreciated.

[reliablefool]

Roots will stick to a clay pot. When I repot from clay I soak for an hour or so and this seems to help loosen them some, but there always seems to be some root loss anyway.

[cbuchman]

Sometimes I break the clay pot so that I can either keep the pieces and use as part of the medium in the next pot or gently pry away the root from the pieces.

[katrina]

I soak in a bucket or tub overnight--to the very rim of the pot...and then break the clay pot w/a hammer. Works great every time...very little root damage.

[james mickelso]

Bingo Carrie. That's great. I too just break the pot. Most times the roots, if allowed to dry fully, will come away from the pieces. But if not then just pot the plant up roots, pieces of pot, and all. I like to take a knife and run it around the edge of the pot to cut away the attached roots. I make sure the plant is dry before doing so. Then I leave it unspotted for a day. This allows the plant to heal any damaged tissue before continuing. Won't hurt the plant at all. Oncids have very thin numerous roots and potting in clear plastic pots isn't really that advantageous. Understanding how oncids grow is. Oncids thin numerous roots are very fragile and rot easily. I rely on good culture more than seeing what the roots look like. I pot in bark/charcoal/spongerock. For small oncids I use 1/4 inch material. For larger oncids like brassias and odonts I use 1/2 inch material. This way I can water often. When I repot, I place something solid like a small pot or stone under the root mass so I can spread out the root mass so the volume under the roots doesn't stay wet which invites root rot. I pot with just enough room for two years growth. The more room the wetter the root mass stays. These are epiphyts Air growers. No media needed. So don't overpot them and don't pot them too often. The longer the interval between repotting the more numerous the blooms.

[diego_p]

Wow thanks everyone. James especially that's more about oncids that I learned. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that these orchids were like miltonias in that they liked being wet most (if not all) of the time. This is info I got off a video on YouTube, so again correct me if I'm wrong and maybe I misunderstood the video or I was just misinformed.
Thanks.

[Optimist]

I just potted down (from larger pots to smaller) 5 oncidium plants that were over potted. I potted them with large course bark into clay pots. This is totally opposite the way we are taught to pot them. I know I will need to break the clay pots in 2 years but I am getting very suspicious of plastic pots. Id rather have a natural pot that breathes. Short cuts like plastic pots and sphag moss... not sure I trust them anymore.

[diego_p]

Optimist -
I agree with you on the sphag moss. After my first two orchids had about 90% of their root mass rotted away, I can't consider that a suitable potting medium.
What's your suspicion with plastic pots? If you don't mind my asking.

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by diego_p

Optimist -
I agree with you on the sphag moss. After my first two orchids had about 90% of their root mass rotted away, I can't consider that a suitable potting medium.
What's your suspicion with plastic pots? If you don't mind my asking.

More or less the same. Humidity without breathability. I've seen the roots of phals in those plastic pots. It is like they are shrink wrapped. Bright green, and look healthy. Take them from the pot and 24 hours later, they are dry and shriveled. Healthy roots would still be silver with a green tip.

Its almost like if you remove the fake environment, they go downhill.

[james mickelso]

milts are not like most oncids. they do like to be kept.....moist. not wet. they are cool growers where as most oncids like it warm. it's interesting that we buy very well grown, thriving, even flowering orchids planted in moss but everyone hates the stuff and eschews it. if we buy one in moss we immediately repot it into bark because if left in the moss it will rot. something doesn't make sense here. moss is actually a very good media to grow orchids in but it takes thought to do it right. packed moss is bad. loosely potted moss is good but you don't want to water as much. just don't keep watering all the time. it's not the moss. it's us and how little we understand about the water needs of orchids in the first place. time and time again we hear about the poor phal which was flowering just fine when we bought it but sometime down the road it started going south quickly. 9 times out of ten we overwatered it.

---------- Post added at 12:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 AM ----------

diego, oncids have very thin easily rotted roots and they have lots of them. because of these numerous roots when kept wet rot sets in. if potted in larger media these roots can dry out enough to keep them from rotting. left in too fine a media the environment under the roots never dries out and this is where the rot starts. I let my brassias and oncids dry out thoroughly before watering again. they flower every year with nice long full inflorescences. I have one throwing a spike right now. I need to buy another camera this weekend so I can show you what I mean. keep an oncid wet all the time and watch it slowly die off. in commercial settings they can be watered quite a bit but their environment is much different than what most folks provide.