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How do you know if your Sarr is in need of fresh soil?

joossa

Aklys
I have had my young Purp for a year now, and it has grown a lot since I got it. I have had no problems with it so far.

I would like to up-scale its pot before Spring... In other words move it to a bigger pot. The thing is, I don't want to disturb it roots and would like to keep its current soil because the top layer of sphagnum has magically come to life since Fall began (and it looks very nice).

Do you guys think it would be okay to transfer the plant with its current soil and just fill in the empty space of the new pot with new peat? ->This would obviously mean that the plant would have to grow in the old soil for one more year... Or should I get rid of all the old soil and repot the plant in fresh, new peat?

Thanks.
-Joel
 
GO HILLARY!

Now that I got that out of the way, your plan sounds fine. Use the same media mix for the new media as whatever the old media was in. BUT keep in mind that this is just a Sarracenia. It's not a Cephalotus, so there's no real need to be so cautious about the roots. Just remove all the old media as a change of media is good ever so often, and it gives you an opportunity to remove any dead material and inspect the root system. You're not really going to upset the plant. Sarracenia are very hardy and take take re-potting very well.

Just peel/cut off the live Sphagnum and put it on the new pot.
 
I even go so far as to use the hose to kind of pressure wash away all the old peat, or you can swirl it around in some water. When I only had my one first Sarracenia I too was so afraid of doing anything with it but after planting more you get a good feel for how tough they are. Just don't let them dry out while you're doing the repotting--throw them into a bucket of water and they'll float and swim happily until you can pot them all up.
 
You might want to wait a little while longer before repotting it. Although hardy, disturbances will be significantly less when done right before dormancy ends.

xvart.
 
If the peat hasn't set like concrete, you might as well keep it in it.

Tip out the plant in a block and set it in a bigger pot, filling in the gaps with new peat.
 
Thanks for the responses. I don't plan on doing the repot now, but I wanted to ask a bit in advance.

I don't worry over repotting as much as I used to, but I asked because I really want to conserve the live Sphagnum. I have been trying to grow some from the dry moss I buy at the store, and have had with no luck. The Purp's pot is that only one that is showing a good considerable amount.


Thanks.
 
The intentional attempts for me to get dried LFS to "germinate" have been failures. The many times it has germinated are on my seedling pots. I took the "dust" from the bottoms of my bags of Mosser Lee domestic LFS and sprinked a thin layer on top of typical CP mix (sand or perlite/peat. Under lights and tray watered almost all the pots sprouted live Sphagnum after about 4 monhs. In other cases, I chopped up New Zealand dried LFS into 0.25 inch bits and cold stratified some seeds in them. After a few months (no layer of domestic LFS) again live LFS One pot of S. purpurea ssp venosa never germinated Sarracenia - I've kept it under lights and still sealed in the bag and almost a year later it is just a top layer of NZ Sphagnum.

When I trim back the overgrowth of Sphagnum I toss the bits into an empty pot sitting in a tray of water. I've just been using the old 2.5 x 2.5 pots that HD VFTs usually come in. A 0.25 - 0.5 inch layer of trimmings will grow to fill the pot in 4 - 6 months depending on how much light they get. The secret is to keep it very wet so the tips don't brown/blacken.
 
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