Thanks for your comments and since it's working great, I have intention of fixing it. What prompted me to do this post was the Xmas plant I brought home from our annual Xmas party. It's a Pot Red Crab 'Kuau Miau' AM/AOS from Kawamoto. It's in a 4" pot with bark and has a bunch of roots outside the pot. The roots took a major beating from the travel but it will reform them since it's on that course. Point is that repotting is only essential to plants that require the inside of the pot for survival. If there are no roots outside the pot and the inside is unhealthy, you have a problem. If on the other hand there is a plethora of roots outside the pot, the plant no longer needs a healthy interior of the pot and will grow quite nicely with the outside roots. This plat is in healthy new bark yet it has lots of outside roots. I plan to just put it in a empty larger pot and never repot it or replace the bark. End of story. 27 years from now it may well look like the Daffodil and get there with a minimum of work other than proper light, temp, water and nutrient. I make a big point of this when I give my Orchids 101 lectures at our show. Give them good conditions and otherwise let them do their thing. Nick

Howdy! Yes, you can re-pot into a fast-draining soil! This time of year is excellent for pinching, pruning, re-potting, et cetera. Since you know to refrain from watering, I don't think a re-potting would pose much of a risk at all. Besides, Nelson will be much healthier through the winter if re-potted now. What ingredients do you have available? Josh

Arthrum: good point, the temps in my house are only kept above 65 degrees, but it still seems that some temperature hardy plants still show dislike of my repotting... Dbarron: oh my! Sounds like a tragedy! I get upset enough when I break of a new shoot! Vtandrea: thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely try it on one of my oncidiums! Jane: I live in the Oakland hills in the SF Bay Area. I grow almost all my indoor orchids in the same spot, positioned around a fireplace to control the amount of light. The facing of the house isn't the best. 80% of the light is late morning to afternoon sun . 90% of the windows are west facing :( like the house... The problem might be I repotted at the wrong time. I didn't a lot of reporting in the winter/ late fall (whoops...)

"The bigger the pot the bigger the plant isn't necessarily true", but probably is true in far more cases than it's untrue. How large a plant can get in a given pot depends more on how roots are managed than how large the pot is. Also, the bigger the pot (you bump it to), the greater the potential for over-potting, which is something you probably should avoid going into winter. I wouldn't "repot" until mid to late June. While you can pot up at nearly any time, as long as you're reasonable in your soil choice and pot size, there are still better times than others to pot up. Those times are the same times it's best to repot, and the reasons are similar. Potting up in June is less risky because the plant will be in the most robust part of the growth cycle, which means roots will colonize the new soil faster than any other segment of the growth cycle, which is an advantage for the plant. That said, repotting is much to be preferred over potting up ....... as long as the timing is appropriate. One practice eliminates all limitations associated with root congestion, the other practice ensures the limitations remain a part of the plant's existence until such time that you actually reach into the root mass with your hands/tools and correct the condition. Al