Hi everyone!

I’m an occasional lurker, and a complete novice with orchids. I have one phalaenopsis that I’ve had for probably 4 or 5 years—just a cheapie from Ikea I bought on a whim. Well, I’ve been a terrible plant parent for it and did nothing but water occasionally for years—no repotting, no fertilizer, and I’m sure the only reason it didn’t die from root rot from the decayed medium is that I’d sometimes forget to water for long stretches.

Well the plant limped along, with somewhat floppy, somewhat wrinkly leaves (never blooming of course) until last February when I decided it had suffered enough. I bought some nice fancy potting medium and a nice fancy pot, repotted (at the time only a few of the roots were still alive) and started using weak fertilizer every few waterings. My little plant went bonkers, put out lots of roots, aerial and normal, and put out several new, bigger leaves.

Now, it finally has a tiny flower spike! But, the roots are also getting out of control wrapping around parts of the pot, sticking to the pot, and growing out through drainage holes. Now I’m worried that I should have repotted before the spike appeared, because now I can’t imaging repotting without many of the roots breaking off in the process.
My understanding is that damaging roots while repotting will hurt development of the spike? But if I put off repotting until it’s finished flowering, I’m worried the plant will be even further tangled into its pot by then. Any thoughts? I’d rather not sacrifice the spike if I can get away with it because I’m just excited about getting blooms for the first time since I bought it. I don’t even remember what color it is. I also feel like, whenever I repot and no matter how gently, it will lose a good portion of its roots. How well do phalaenopsis bounce back from that?

Also, I’ve found a lot of info online about repotting back into the same pot but I’m not sure how to tell when an orchid needs a bigger pot. Is it just a matter of having a bigger pot on hand and sizing up if you can’t fit the orchid roots back in the pot it came out of?

Finally, I know aerial roots are normal, but is it normal to have quite so many that are so long?

Thanks in advance—this is a great forum!

—Pictures to come in below reply; I’m having trouble attaching them here.