I’m new to growing this type of plant. We’ve had it for a little over a year and it was growing well up until winter, when growth slowed. I was thinking originally to re-pot in a larger container this coming spring/summer.

Over the last few weeks, it has sharply declined. We had a power outage with no heat for 4 days, and temps in the house eventually reached the low 40s, and the whole plant became very droopy during that time ... now some of the leaves have turned yellow/brown and fallen off. Also it doesn’t seem to be taking up much water. Soil has been wet without watering for many days.

I’m thinking it needs to be repotted now or very soon. My questions are:

1) should I repot in a larger container, and, if so, how much larger? I would like it to be able to grow to its potential. It is currently in a 4inch diameter pot.

2) what is the best and most easily available soil mix I can make for it? I saw it mentioned to use bark/pumice/perlite in another posting. I have some leftover, untreated mostly pine bark/mulch from our town‘s mulch site (we got some last year). I believe it is a mixture from Christmas trees and local tree branches that have fallen and been picked up by the town. Would that work for the bark portion? Or would it be better to just buy an orchid soil mixture?

3) should I fertilize the plant and repot later?