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Saturday, June 28, 2008

Horror stories of breaking up a compot

On my recent trip to FL I picked up a lovely compot of Milt. Kibet. Today I set about the task of dividing it into individual pots and promptly screeched to a halt. The pot is more than root bound. Its almost nothing but roots. I guess the size of the plants and the date of potting (12/2005) should have both been a tip off, but all I saw was a pot full of blooming size plants. ugh. I think I'm going to have to take a knife to the root ball. I'm not happy about that, but I don't think I have any choice. Its either the hacksaw or they stay as one giant mass. Check out the photos of the monsters below.









Maybe I'll just procrastinate a while by knitting and watching the Muppet Move.

4 comments:

swamprad said...

They look to be quite vigorous, I don't think they'll mind the hacksaw too much. Are you putting them into semi-hydro? My 4 miltoniopsis have about finished blooming and into s/h they go. I'm putting basically everything into s/h except the slippers.

Julia said...

Yes, I thought I'd put some in semi-hydro and some in my paph mix, since I've got some mixed up, just in case they don't take to semi-hydro for me. Plus I only have a few containers right now with the option of placing holes only where I want them for semi-hydro.

fluffnflowers said...

Holy roots! Luckily, they're pretty weedy and this is a good time to go at 'em.

Good luck with that! Maybe you should just leave it as a specimen and hack off pieces as they grow? I don't know if I could bring myself to break that up!

Julia said...

Well I still haven't done anything. I think I fear it.

Once upon a time I was helping out at Arbec Orchids, and someone brought in a giant dendrobium in something like a 15 gallon tub. They divided it by jamming 2 shovels in it back to back and prying it apart. It was pretty gruesome.

I feel like I should be able to handle this little tray of Milt. but yet I procrastinate!