There is a right time for dividing orchids, Yang Shaohua shares his experience

Yang Shaohua: The season for dividing orchids -- seizing the opportunity. It is once again the annual season for repotting and dividing orchids. Drawing on my several years of growing experience, I have summarized my methods as follows, in the hope of offering a modest contribution to stimulate discussion, and I look forward to the guidance of fellow orchid growers! Three years ago I built a glass greenhouse of about ten square meters and began introducing relatively common Cymbidium sinense plain-flowered line-art varieties. Through practice, I have basically achieved the goal of two new shoots per year, or three new shoots every two years, while ensuring that the current year's new shoots do not lose their pseudobulbs. The results have been quite good. The specific methods are: 1. Maintain strong-light management. The orchid room is kept under strong light of more than 12 hours per day at an illuminance of about 10000 lux, and on cloudy and rainy days, artificial lighting is used to make up the difference. 2. Maintain ventilation and air permeability. A gap of about 5 cm is left at the bottom of the orchid room to ensure fresh and circulating air, and exhaust fans, leaf-blowing fans, and intake fans are operated in turn to ensure fresh air. 3. Maintain the relative humidity of the orchid greenhouse. Through the regulation of a humidifier, the relative humidity of the orchid greenhouse is kept at about 70 percent. 4. Adopt appropriate water and fertilizer management. According to the growth condition of the orchid plants, adopt management measures of strong water and weak fertilizer, mainly using solid slow-release granular fertilizer, and apply water-soluble fertilizer two or three times a year according to the season and growth condition. 5. Keep good records and grasp the appropriate timing for dividing pots and dividing orchids. If Cymbidium sinense is grown properly, it can produce two new shoots a year (excluding high-tech growing methods). How can this goal be achieved? My approach is: keep records of pot division, the number of seedlings, the state of the roots, and the time of shoot emergence. When there are autumn shoots in the 7th to 8th lunar month each year, there will certainly be spring shoots the following year. The key is when to divide the orchids. I usually wait until the autumn shoots have grown new shoots to the point of opening, and then divide. If shoots emerge in the 9th lunar month, it depends on the growth condition, and the orchids should be divided only after ensuring new shoots. Usually the later-stage plants will have late spring shoots. Never rigidly fix a time for repotting and dividing orchids. Combine this with the season and do a good job of water and fertilizer management. With effort, there will always be a harvest!