Orchid Repotting – Know The Essentials

Orchid repotting requires special care. If you are a beginner grower, the most important thing that you should bear in mind is that repotting should be done every two years. Repotting is vital to your plant’s health, so you shouldn’t wait for more than a year to do this.

Why is there a need for you to repot anyway? You have 2 reasons: drainage and overgrowth. The moment you notice that your orchid’s growth is extending past the pot’s edge, it’s already time to repot. Similar to other plants, the orchid’s roots can spread out and outgrow its pot. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t let your plant stay in a single pot for an extended period of time, or else it may not give you amazing blooms, or worse, it may not give off flowers at all!

The process of repotting orchids is quite different from repotting other houseplants. Below are some valuable tips on orchid repotting:

1. Be sure to select the potting medium that will match your needs perfectly. Your pot selection isn’t that important because typically plants will bloom in just about any pot type: decorator pots, clay pots or plastic pots. Pots have various degrees of drying, so your choice of pots will influence your frequency of watering your plants. Don’t worry, there are no hard or fast rules to this, all you just need to do is water your plant a several times and get a feel for how long the water stays in the pot.

2. Orchids are very much like pets – they require good food, and you would need to give them fresh fertilizer. This is one big reason why there’s a need to repot. The new pot media will give new nutrients that your plants need.

3. When grown in pots, orchids require an open, well-drained compost. Using pink bark chippings is a good idea. You can get this from cropping mature trees, garden centers or from special orchid greenhouses. Simply add materials like Cornish grit to prevent clogging, horticultural charcoal to keep the compost sweet, and sphagnum moss to retain moisture.

4. The basic organic compost will provide the plant with most of the nutrients that they require for healthy growth and slightly additional supplementary feeding is all that is vital. The use of Rockwool, an inorganic compound, is pretty popular.

These tips in orchid repotting will definitely give you all the headstart that you need.

Norm Stewart has been growing herbs for 35 years. Find out more about secrets and expert tips about orchid repotting and everything you need to know about the best and fastest way to grow a successful herb garden with his popular free ecourse, available at http://www.herbgrowing-guide.com/