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Advice on mid growing season potting up?

Hi Sarracenia folks! I've got a question for you.

A friend just dropped off a couple new plants for me: a "scarlet belles" and a "gin goblin". What a nice surprise! But... I don't typically get Sarracenia this far into the growing season.

They're in tiny little 3" pots that have to be raised up on bricks to not get flooded in my trays. How bad would it be to drop them into larger pots (i.e. not remove the media they're growing in, just drop their entire root... cube into a larger pot)?

While we're talking about potting, top dressing, yeay or nay? Sand, sphangum, live sphagnum?

Cheers!
 
I don't see why not, I bought some sarrs in early May than came in one inch plugs, I plopped them into 4 inch pots and they've filled in fairly well
They might not survive the winter in 3 inchers
As per top dressing, it's not a must but the folks over at Sarr NW use pea gravel to avoid soil erosion and to keep in moisture
 
The plants should be fine putting them into larger pots.
I always use 2 part peat 1 part silica sand with a sphagnum bedding on top.
 
Fill your new pots with media and temporarily "plant" the three in pots in them as deeply as possible. Pull out the 3" pot, gently squeeze the sides of the pot all around and pull out the entire plant and old media. A long bladed knife may help. Put this into the hole left in the media in the new pot and fill in where needed.

Congratulations, you repotted your plant with minimal root disturbance.

Or just leave 'em be until next year. Sarracenia doesn't appear to be affected much by root crowding.
 
I've repotted loads of Sarrs, year round, w/ no issues...usually just remove the existing soil w/ fingers, dunk and shake the roots in a bucket of water, then toss them into fresh soil. I've not seen any problems regardless of the time of year...and I'm not overly gentle w/ them. They are pretty hardy plants. I'm sure there are other opinions on this though...
 
I've repotted loads of Sarrs, year round, w/ no issues...usually just remove the existing soil w/ fingers, dunk and shake the roots in a bucket of water, then toss them into fresh soil. I've not seen any problems regardless of the time of year...and I'm not overly gentle w/ them. They are pretty hardy plants. I'm sure there are other opinions on this though...

I agree with Swampdonkey with one caveat. This would be true for a lot of plants actually. When you have soft new growth, an emerging bud or opening flower there is an increased chance of the pitcher becoming malformed or the flower aborting if the plant is disturbed and then stressed though reduction of available water or intense sunlight & heat which dramatically increases evapo-transpiration. It's easy to loose a bunch of roots when bare-rooting a mature root-bound plant. Sarracennia are indeed tough plants and I've bare-rooted them mid summer and not lost any but just don't be upset if you loose the bloom and really wanted to pollinate it. If you do divide or disturb the roots during the growing period is helps to keep the plant shaded and cooler for a week or so to allow it to adjust. Of course where SD and I live this means putting it out in the open field with full exposure. Our idea of a hot day is when the temps go above 79.5 deg F. If you're living in the heat belt this year....I'd advise caution about disturbing the roots aside from simple up-shifting in pot size until the weather cools a bit.
 
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