Repotting My Orchid

This is a chore that I've been postponing for ages. Ok, maybe not ages, but years for sure and not because it takes a lot of time and it's difficult, but because I've been worried not to damage the flower and cause more problems. Lucky me, it's not the "leave it till someone else does it" type and has been eating my conscience, so today I said it is the day to finally refresh my poor orchid.

Hive is my diary, so even though I can't remember when was the last time I've repotted poor orchid, could scroll back to check. It was a few years ago, like 2 or 3, but it doesn't matter.

Before starting, obviously I ran a search to see if I really know what I have to do, or just have the impression that I know. The truth is, you only have one shot at this. If you screw it up, you can say goodbye to your lovely flowers as there's a huge chance they don't recover.

This year I already made a huuuuuge mistake, when I wanted to set up the support for the flower and broke the stem. I needed a few days to get over it and it still hurts that I not only caused the flower to suffer, but could not see the flowers either, as I broke the stem before it could grow enough to flower. It was a harsh lesson and I'm going to make sure never to hurt my lovely orchid again.

Ingredients you need:

• the orchid (obviously),
• scissors,
• alcohol,
• cotton wool or a clean cloth,
• orchid substrate,
• a new pot, if it's needed.

I started by disinfecting my scissors. This is needed to avoid contaminating the orchid by accident.

If you've ever repotted an orchid, you know that what you see on the photos above is screaming for care. Yes, I admit it and there's the proof.

The dark, muddy pile at the bottom shoes that the original fir bark has decomposed into fine soil-like particles which suffocates the roots, cuts off oxygen, and causes root rot. Simple as that.

The first step of repotting is to clean the roots. Eliminate, clean the roots of all the orchid substrate. That's what I eliminated of mine.

Then cut off all the dry roots. Mine had quite a lot dry roots and after eliminating those, you can see the green and yellow roots, that are healthy.

This is what I was left with, the healthy roots.

The next step is to pot the orchid, for which you need a new pot and fir bark. I chose to keep the old pot, because the size is still suitable for the flower, so a good wash did the trick and reused it. The fir bark obviously has to be fresh as the old one is not reusable.

Voilà! Repotted, fresh and lovely!

And this is where I'm confused. I got this lovely, antic looking, watering can pot, that I am keeping my orchid in. I love how it looks, but reading about orchid care, I learnt that the pot has to be transparent, so the roots have enough light and this lovely pot causes the exact opposite. Only the top roots get some light and I don't know if it's ok.

The funny thing is, the shops are full of these decorative pots for orchids, but if it's not healthy for the flower, then what's the point? My orchid looks healthy, just look at the leaves and you can see they are doing ok, but maybe letting the roots get more light can make them more healthy. I need to make a decision.

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