I inspect my orchids every morning closely. What do I look for? Oh, anything from new growth to dead leaves, from nubs to buds to all sorts things that might seem beyond the norm. It’s a crazy ritual that comes with the obsession.
Today, I’ve decided to repot my Dendrobium spectabile.
Here is the plant. It looks like it’s about to outgrow it’s clay pot. This young thing has never flowered, by the way.
You can see that the newest pseudobulb has reached the end of the pot and the new roots are growing over the edge. If I leave this alone, the roots will continue to grow and cling on to the outside of the pot, which is okay, but will be quite difficult to detach the next time I decide to repot this baby.
So yes, even though this Dendrobium spectabile doesn’t need to be repotted that badly, I’ll do so now before new growth makes it challenging.
I sized up the potential pots. I do have lots of pots and I go against some conventional wisdom and recycle them.
I decided on the black plastic pot. It looked a little bigger than necessary, but I really wanted to leave my spectabile growing comfortably alone and not disturb it for the next couple of years.
I prepared the media which is the standard smashed up bricks and charcoal.
I carefully extracted the Dendrobium spectabile out of its current pot, trying not to damage the roots.

Hold the plant as close to the roots as possible, followed by a little wiggling, a little twist, and gently pull. If this was a plastic pot, squeezing the pot would help. I don’t remove much of the old media to preserve the root ball.
Next, I placed the plant into the new pot with the new lead growth positioned toward the middle. Then, I filled it up with the growing media.
(Things got quite messy here. I needed both hands, so no pictures).
Fast forward, and ta da!

It’s important not to bury the base of the lead pseudobulb with potting media. The ‘eye’ must not be obstructed – that’s where the new lead will emerge.
To keep it moist, I blanketed the top lightly with some coconut chips. I saved these up from here.
Orchids generally don’t need much repotting. In fact, they thrive better with less disturbance around the roots so any form of repotting should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.
But this entire process is kind of therapeutic, don’t you think?

Source: Reaction GIFs
UPDATE: Just over a month later, a new pseudobulb has grown out rather nicely. This orchid’s looking good!
I just found this item and I also have a send spectabile that has outgrown its 3-4” pot and is perched on the rim of the pot. There are a ton of long roots hanging over the side and half of the roots inside the pot are rotted away. Shall I report in a bigger pot (yes) with all of the roots inside new pot or shd I put only the roots that were originally in the pot back in the new pot/ leaving the roots that were originally outside the pot in the same way, that is, outside of the new pot. Repot exactly the way it was, bz if I put ALL the roots back in new pot they are going to die off and grow new roots. Help!!!
Hi Janet,
1. Remove the plant GENTLY from the old pot, making sure not to break too much healthy roots.
2. Cut away all the dead roots.
3. Repot in a bigger pot with all the roots inside the new pot. Use a more open potting mix so that the roots are able to ‘breathe’.
Hope this helps!