Moving the plant to a loose bark mix may well cause the plant's flowers to wilt and buds to blast. Bark mixes require more water than plants potted in sphagnum. Long strand sphagnum or New Zealand moss is better when used in conjunction with a clay pot. Commercial growers use plastic pots to save on water. If the plant is in moss and a plastic pot, then simply keep the plant moist but not wet. Allow the plant to dry out, but not completely between watering. If the moss is totally broken down, then repot. But I wouldn't repot it for the sake of repotting if it doesn't need it, especially while the plant is in bloom. The best time to replant any orchid is when it is actively putting out new roots. This will mitigate transplant shock. Simply putting out new leaves isn't enough, the plant should be putting out green root tips to adequately re-root into new media.

If your concerned, then wait until the blooms fade off and then re-pot to your hearts content. The blooms usually last close to 2 months for me.

I just bought a phaleonopsis. It is in a 4 inch pot. It is in bloom and beautiful! Problem I'm having: There are two orchids in this tiny pot. It looks as though the bigger plants leaves are wilting. Can I successfully separate and repot, without killing the blooms?

I would not repot a plant in bloom unless an emergency. The odds are high you will lose the blooms. If you risk losing the plant than repot.

I agree with 'toyo1960.

Jane

A little late on this but this post came up in a search I just did. I just bought a mini phal from HD. It was in this little plastic cup, and inside the cup it was vacuum packed in plastic with a small hole in the bottom. It was potted in the moss and it looked completely broken down. Through the plastic I could see white stuff forming in the bottom and some of the roots were brown and mushy. I didn't think to look for this til I got home, so I did some emergency surgery and tore it out of the plastic, pulled out all the moss, drilled tons of holes in the little cup it came in, trimmed any brown mush from the roots, and repotted it in an orchid mix that I bought the same day. I read that you shouldn't, but I'm fairly certain the whole plant would have died had I left it that way til the blooms fell off. I left it dry for a day, watered it good yesterday, and today I see one of the flowers is sagging a little but it doesn't look terrible. I really just hope I saved the plant itself.

Also wondering how yours turned out?

I know this is an old thread, but this question is for pinkgnome. I got the same identical mini phal from HD Saturday, 2 days ago. Just one hole on the bottom, and saturated moss beyond belief. I poked lots of holes around the plastic cup to let some air in to help it dry out. Roots are extremely healthy and phal is in full bloom. As much as I want to repot it, I'm going to wait till the blooms fall off and then repot in bark in correctly clear pot.

So my question to you is did your little phal survive after cutting away some of the roots and repotting it right away? I sure hope so! First picture is with the holes I poked in the cup and second picture is of the healthy roots. It just looks so crammed in there!

I have the same dilemma everytime I purchase a new Phal. I have 2 Phals that I bought 2-3 months back. They were in bloom (1-2 open flowers with few buds). I repotted them immediately after I got it home. Nothing bad happened. Blooms are still there, new buds opened up and I have 2 spikelets (if that's even a word) with lots of buds coming out of the existing flower spike. Awesome right!

Then I read up and everywhere it says not to repot while in bloom. I bought 2 more Phals yesterday and I'm still thinking if I should repot it. I can't watch them rotting away in packed drenched moss but at the same time I don't want to lower the plant's chances of reblooming next year. Nothing more frustrating than a plant that doesn't bloom that you take so much care of. Also, I don't want to risk blooms falling off even though it didn't in my previous plants. Each plant may have different reactions.

But what the hell I'll just go and repot them now I guess.

It depends a great deal on where you are in the world and your growing conditions. I bought a Phal in early winter (it was potted in the dreaded spag) I have marginal conditions in winter so I did not repot till the flowers started to drop off in spring.

Might be OK to repot anytime if you have good Phal Growing conditions.

I think if your plant is so root bound you feel it needs to be repotted, then do it. I’ve repotted all of my orchids (I have to phal, a zygopetalum and a beallara) when they were blooming and they didn’t miss a beat. It’s in how you handle them when repotting. Be careful of the leaves, don’t break roots, etc. I hold the plant in one hand while repotting- i don’t set the plant down unless it’s in a stable pot so that doesn’t tip over and allow the plant to hit the ground. Prep work is important. Get all set up beforehand so you don’t have to stop during repot. But if you do have to stop to get something, make sure you have a temporary landing spot set up for the orchid where it’ll be safe from mechanical damage (tipping, bumping things, etc).

And have fun during the repot. You’re helping a plant have future (healthy) blooms that you can enjoy!!

PS Jersey Girl- while I don’t like sphagnum as a potting medium that I would add, one of my orchids came packed in sphagnum. It’s doing well, but I wouldn’t wait too long to repot in a bark mix. I waited almost too long, and the roots were rubbery feeling. It was close to the edge of thinking about rotting. A little sphagnum is ok, not a lot for long term- like in your photo.

If you can pull it out of the pot in a whole lump like that, it won't disturb things to yank out a LOT of the sphag from the center, giving the roots way more room to breathe (phal roots need humidy, not wetness). You will be shocked at the amount that can be removed without upsetting the roots. Below is a phal someone gave me after it was done flowering. I haven't had time to repot, but I've pulled out probably 75% of the mass of sphag. You can see that there's still plenty to keep it humid, even in my dry office environment (I have been away and this has not been watered for 5 days ... the sphag is nearly dry, but roots are still green).

Good luck!!

One side:

The flip side:

I've been having some success moving phals from spagh to a bark mix by removing a lot of the spagh as mentioned and then repotting into a slightly larger pot with bark mix filling in the edges and some of the center, Seems to help them transition from the spagh to bark easier. Next repotting you can probably go all bark mix if desired.

Good luck,

Bob