Well, no. But many novices will go by leaf size instead of by the size of
the roots, for example, and get a pot that looks the right size with the
leaves, or will always assume that a plant should be repotted into a pot
that is one size larger no matter what the state of the roots. This means
that an orchid that has not been doing well and that has many fewer roots
than it had in its better days will still be put into a slightly larger pot
even though by now even its previous pot was too large for it.

Also many novices will look at an orchid that is potted in a tight pot with
roots that just barely fit in, and they will think that the plant must have
outgrown its previous pot, and that it needs to be in a larger pot to have
room to grow further. While in reality Phals like to be root-bound and have
only just enough space in the pot to fit the root ball in but not extra
space.

That is not something that common sense will tell one -- or at least that is
not what a lot of people will put in under the definition of "common sense".
And I am quite sure that a lot of people who have made this kind of mistake
would resent being told that they don't have common sense.

Oh, and one other scenario to consider: I have at least once bought an
orchid that was actually sold to me in a pot that was way too big for it --
I think the vendor may have been dishonest and wanted to charge more for it
based on pot size, or alternatively the vendor was not an experienced grower
himself and had made an honest mistake. I don't know for sure. This was a
mail-order orchid, so I did not get to examine it before I bought it.
Luckily by then I had learned enough about orchids that I noticed that
something was wrong with it, I repotted the orchid soon afterwards, noticed
that the pot was too big and put it into a much smaller pot. I could have
complained to the vendor, etc, but since I actually wanted to keep that
plant, I didn't say anything but never bought from this vendor again. The
orchid recovered after being placed in a pot that was more appropriate for
it. But I know that if this had been my first orchid and if I had not
learned something about repotting before I got it, this orchid would not
have had a chance.

Joanna

wrote in message
oups.com...
So, when you were a novice, you'd look at a plant in a four-inch pot
and think it was okay to put it in an eight-inch pot? I doubt that.

J. Del Col