Broken pot during blooming (Phalaenopsis)
 

Hello fellow forum members!

So, Ι have found myself in quite a predicament!
My clear plastic pot fell and cracked.
It has a huge tear and watering has become a huge nuisance. It dries out super fast as I can't really immerse it in water anymore.

Blooming season is already here for the poor phalaenopsis, and I am worried of repotting it. However I am usually very gentle so the roots are higly unlikely to be damaged by getting medium off of them.

What would you do if you were in my shoes!?

I think you can do one of two things. First, if you have a pot that is a little bit larger than the broken plastic one it is in right now, simply drop the broken pot inside that one. It could be a larger plastic pot or a terra cotta (clay) pot. This would be a temporary solution until you are ready for a total repot. Just make sure the outer pot also has a drainage hole or holes, and that there is a little bit of "breathing room" between the two pots so that air can still get to the roots.

Or, you could simply go ahead and repot now into your preferred type of pot. There are no guarantees, of course, but most people will tell you that Phals are not too fussy about when they get repotted, whether they are in bloom or not, and it sounds like you know how to do it carefully.

You could use sturdy tape to hold the pot together until you are ready to repot.

If the pot can be easily removed, Phals usually don't suffer when repotted even in bloom. If you don't try to remove the medium, just drop into another pot, the plant probably won't even notice that it was moved. That's what I do (I have had the experience, more than once...) - put the pot in another pot, or take plant out of the old pot and drop into a new one with minimal root disturbance.

I did try using tape at first, but it was really messy. the medium is pretty fine at some points so it was just flowing out!
I think I will go ahead and repot it! The medium is only one year old and I don't detect any mold or weird smells so I will reuse whatever is left from it!
Thanks for the advice everyone!!!

If it were me, I would use fresh medium if I were repotting my phal. Why put old bark, which is nearer to breaking down, into a fresh pot? It will hasten the breakdown of your new bark, and you will have to repot again sooner.

My reasoning was to affect the roots as little as possible.
But yeah, your point still stands!
It all comes down to how skillfully I can extract the medium off the roots then I guess!

I don't worry about removing all old media. To me, root preservation is the prioirty. If your roots are in good shape and the medium isn't broken down, just slide into another pot - you may want to fill in fresh bark on general principles, but you don't have to be aggressive about the replacement.

Just un-pot the plant and give it a gentle shaking. That should remove a decent bit of old media without doing any damage to the roots, since you're using a finer media. Then set it into the new pot and pour pre-soaked media around it, making sure the media gets between the roots. Phals are really tolerant of being disturbed while blooming, as long as you make sure they don't dry out.

Update: I ended up doing a full repot, cut off a couple dead roots as well. My phal was completely unphased!
Even growing a new leaf simultaneously with the blooming right now. Which I honestly didn't expect, might have been triggered by the rise in temperature.