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Fryster

--Freedom Czar--
I received five different Sarracenia varieties from a well-known and repeatable online nursery, and I'd like to repot them into more decorative (and larger) draining pots.

  • S. flava
  • S. leucophylla 'Tarnok'
  • S. psittacina
  • S. purpurea ssp. venosa
  • S. rubra ssp. alabamensis

All the Sarr's soil, as it currently is, smells rather musty (downright funky in fact) and appears to be well settled and compact. When I gently tilt a plant out of its plastic pot I notice that is looks very root-bound. Actually, three of the five look quite root-bound. :(

All five plants are healthy right now; good color and everything.

I guess my question is: Is it alright to cut away some of the roots in order to loosen away the old funky soil to repot them into a fresh peat / perlite mix?

Would cutting off some of their cramped roots damage or even kill my Sarrs? Or are Sarrs durable enough to have their "legs" trimmed??

Thanks, :)
 
Dont cut the roots. This will harm the plants if done too much.

All you need to do is get a bowl of water, make sure you use cp safe water, to wash away any soil.

Very simple :)
 
Hi,

One thing you may wish to try to minimize damage to the roots, fill a small bucket with distilled water. Pull the plants out of their pots. Gently remove as much soil as you can by hand. Then to really get them clean, put the rhizome in the water and swish it around to really wash the roots. It will be okay to remove obvious dead roots, but don't mess too much with the good ones.

If you just want to place them in larger pots, you can do so with minimal damage to the roots. Just add fresh mix to the larger pot.

Doing this during active growth will probably set your plants into shock and slow their growth. If at all possible, let them be until they go dormant this fall. Then they can be repotted without any worries. Don't worry too much about the smell of the soil. Wet peat moss can smell quite musty.
 
Just uproot them and break off the peat. Alternatively, swoosh it around in a bucket of water and it will easily come off.
 
I agree with the water method .. if they won't come out of the soil easily, I just hold the dirt/root ball in my hand and poor distilled water over it until only roots are left. I've yet to notice any root shock using this method and I've done numerous repottings (pretty much everything I've bought). When I am putting them into their new pot, I soak the soil so it's extremely runny/loose then put the plant in it's hole and then either gently squish the soil around the roots or even dump a bunch of water in to make the soil fill itself in. :)
 
If they are young, they shouldn't be rootbound unless they are grown in a really small pot. I have 3 small sarrs growing in ONE 4 inch pot. And they are fine. Anyway, I'm not arguing, but I definitely agree with everyone else. Use water to wash away the soil. It might not hurt to dilute a little vitamin B-12 solution to do it. (Can I say a product name?) ST? Anyway, if you know what I'm talking about, I think this works best. You can even see a little growth spurt after repottting.
 
Yep, you can name Superthrive

(it's snakeoil and does zilch though! Save your money!)
 
You don't think it does anything Alexis? Yea Superthrive can be expensive. But Like I said, I usually see a little growth spurt and slightly bigger pitchers after using it. Just don't use too much. Or algae will go crazy.
 
My small experience using ST agrees w/ Alexis & Barry. Here are Barry's thoughts on Superthrive
 
  • #10
Ok, I won't debate it. If it works for you, great! If not, ok too. I don't think it would hurt to try. Maybe it's all in my head!:-))
 
  • #11
Barry's take on repotting Sarracenia is not to do it until the roots are literally bursting out of the pots.

And S. rubra sometimes does not like root disturbance: "Adult plants of all subspecies of S. rubra enjoy full sun outdoors. They do best in peat/sand soil mixtures. Make sure you use a large enough pot as the plants tend to not like being transplanted--they don't die, they just take a year or two to get back to their usual selves." http://www.carnivorousplants.org/seedbank/species/S_rubra.htm
 
  • #12
Okay, I won't cut the roots and I'll use the bowl-of-water method to remove the old soil.

After giving it some thought; perhaps I should postpone 'til their winter dormancy 'huh?

Play it safe I guess......



Better idea? Yes?
 
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