Potting up/Re-Potting

[DebsC]

When potting up a cattleya in inert material, have you ever just busted the clay pot it's in, then picked off what pieces of the pot that comes off easily, leaving the rest attached? Then insert the whole thing in a larger pot? Adding more inert potting material to fill in the spaces.

I read about this recently and it really got me to thinking not only about potting medium but how much easier the potting up process would be like this.

I love growing cattleya in a bark mixture. But the nice hard, large bark is scarce now a days.

The other day I knocked a 4 in clay pot off the shelf. Even though it landed on pea gravel, it busted pretty badly.

The pot is full of roots that won't have to be disturbed too much because it's in lava rock. I can knock off the loose pieces of clay and put what's left in another pot.

Had it been in my favorite bark mixture and if that media was deteriorated, I would have had to do a lot more before repotting.

Anyway, just a thought and maybe another plus for the inert types of potting medium.