When is the best time for orchids to split up and change pots?

When is the best time to divide orchids and change pots?

Potted orchids are limited by pots, and their vigorous roots are not stretched out, constantly arching to the pot surface, which brings difficulties to watering and fertilizing. On the other hand, too many plants in the basin, airtight, easy to suffer disease and insect damage, but also to the future of the plant to bring difficulties. General varieties, two or three years for pot; precious varieties three or four years for pot. Generally speaking, according to the plant density in the pot, pot characters, diseases and insect pests to determine the time of plant division.

When exactly to carry out plant replacement pot, successive generations of orchid cultivation experts have their own opinions: Song Dynasty "Jinzhang Orchid Spectrum" records: Orchid plant should be after cold dew, before the beginning of winter (early October-mid-November). When all things return to their roots, their leaves are pale and their roots are old. Qing Dynasty "Linghai Lan Yan" records: after the spring equinox (March), after the autumn orchid Xiaohan, when the old leaves are unloaded, new buds will be born, hundred flowers. Deng Chengkang of Sichuan Province advocated in his book "Raising Orchid" that orchid ramets should be carried out in spring and autumn. Summer and autumn flowering species, divided in spring; spring flowering species, in autumn or spring. Shen Yuan of Jiangsu Province said in his book Orchid: In the middle of the year, spring, autumn and winter can be divided into plants and changed pots, as long as extreme heat and freezing are avoided. The most appropriate period is after the vernal equinox and before the beginning of summer, or after the autumnal equinox and before the beginning of winter. In his book A Collection of Famous Flowers, Taiwan orchid expert Li Tsung-hou proposes three stages: first, the period when new buds begin to grow; second, the period when new plants grow roots; and third, after flowering.

Through various experiments, I found that the vegetative growth period and reproductive growth period of different species of orchids are difficult to distinguish completely, and are often staggered. Flower bud differentiation begins six or seven months before flowering. If plants are divided and pots are changed in the early stage of flowering, there will be less flowering or no flowering. Similarly, tillers of leaf buds cannot be found. If plants are divided at this stage, leaf buds will be damaged to varying degrees. The differentiation of leaf buds and flower buds varies not only with varieties, but also with light, temperature, humidity, nutrition, plant quality and plant diseases and insect pests. Therefore, it is difficult to select the most harmless period to divide plants and change pots. However, I found that when flowering, the vegetative growth gene will be in diapause period, when the flower withers, the reproductive gene will enter dormant period, and the vegetative growth gene will gradually change from diapause period to active period. If we can grasp the half month time after the flower withers to divide and change pots, it will not affect flowering, nor lose leaf buds, but also promote leaf bud tillering by dividing plants. Therefore, it is the best time to divide and change pots after flowering.