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Repotting VFT

Currently, my VFT is in a tiny 2-inch pot, and if you look under it, you can see its little roots poking out of the holes in the bottom of the pot. This means that it needs repotting, right?

I remember reading that the larger the pot, the smaller the leaves get, and the smaller the pot, the larger the leaves get. Personally, I think the larger leaves look cooler
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, but is it unhealthy for my plant to be confined to this small of pot? I don't want to discourage overall plant growth...

Spring has arrived, and I think now would be a good time to repot my VFT, if it needs to be.

Thanks!
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Personally I have never experimented with growing mine in smaller pots. All of mine go into minimum 3 1/2 inch pots immediately when I get them. I can say that my green dragons not only formed huge clumps but also have very decent size traps. If your plant is rootbound, I would say go right ahead and drop it into a nice roomy 4 inch pot. Your plant may reward you by filling it with a massive clump of happy hungry traps.

Good luck
Steve
 
What he said! LoL.. yes, I think it is true that the larger the pot, the smaller the leaves are, and the smaller the pot, the larger the leaves, because I've experienced that firsthand with my VFTs. I had to move my mother's two Green Dragons I'm keeping for her from their large six incher to two seperate three inchers because they were so darned tiny. I may have to do the same with the one I have in a large pot.. because it's tiny, and yet the Red Mouth I have right next to it in a much smaller pot is awesome looking, with large leaves and traps an it's all around just much healthier.
 
Well, I like my plant the way it is (it produces fairly large traps), but I'm just concerned about the roots growing out of the holes in the bottom of the pot - is it trying to tell me something?
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If roots are coming out of the bottem of the pot then ya you probably should upgrade how ever if its possible just buy a deeper pot with same diameter of a longer / bigger diameter but same depth both of these will alllow your plant to expand how ever if you increase size all the way around you will tend to have smaller traps!!
 
Here are some examples of very small plants grown in 4 inch pots..  


These are my green dragons right after they were seperated and potted into 4 inch pots. (6-02)
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Thats a US dime in the pot for size reference.
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And here are the same plants today. (4-05-04)
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These plants are only a few weeks out of dormancy now and will have even larger traps as we get farther into the season.

Good luck with your plants
Steve
 
Wow, those look really nice! I think I'm gonna go ahead and repot my VFT and see how it goes.
 
I say repot!  In nature there usually isn't a limit on the soil depth.  A bigger pot will also increase the volume to surface area ratio to decrease the amount of watering or decrease the chance of it drying out.
 
Okay, so I got my soil and I'm ready to repot. Now, this may seem trivial, but are ceramic pots any better then plastic pots? I assume it makes no difference, but I was just curious.
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  • #10
They say if you use ceramics the pots should be glazed, not sure if it really matters. I like plastic.. Good luck
 
  • #11
Unglazed pots absorb salts/minerals over time from your potting soil and water and will eventually leach them back into the soil, damageing your CPs roots.

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BCK
 
  • #12
Scratch the ceramic pot then.  Thanks all
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  • #13
Aslo, non-glazed ceramic pots are very porous and facilitate drying out the soil. They are really good for cacti. Not so good for bog plants like VFTs.

Repotting is a good thing--fresh medium adds a fresh supply of nutrients for the plant to use. I bareroot my VFTs into the frig for winter dormancy and when they come out they have to be (re)potted.

Roots coming out of the bottom of the pot is your first clue that the plant needs repotting. Yes, it will continue on without being repotted, but its out grown its home and would like a bigger one.
 
  • #14
Ok, so today I repotted my VFT using a larger plastic pot - I even bought the soil mix off of PetFlytrap.com.  It (the website) said that the mix was peat moss and sand/perlite.  When it arrived, it was a big brown bag of peat moss soil with some white sandy stuff on top, so I put it all in a 1-gallon Ziplock bag and mixed it up.

Anyway, so I put about an inch or so of the new soil on the bottom of the new pot, and put my VFT (including most of the old soil clump) from the old pot to the new pot.  Then, I just filled the sides up with the new soil, and slightly pressed it down.

So then I filled the tray with water to get things all nice and squishy, and called it a done deal.  I came back two hours later and most of the water is still in the tray and the new soil still dry...  Is it supposed to take a long time for this new soil to soak up water?  The old soil would soak up the water much quicker than this...

Yes, there are holes in the bottom of the pot
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  • #15
The peat needed to be soaked in water first, then mixed with the other ingredients and put into the pot. Thats the main reason its not soaking up any water.

Also, whenever u plant a plant---u need to soak the soil to prevent it from sucking all the fluid out of your plant through reverse osmosiss.

Soak it from the top down---flood it repeatedly until it is completely soaked. Then it will begin drawing water up from the tray.
 
  • #16
D'oh! *goes to soak the pot*
 
  • #17
I had a good laugh at that one thank you. The first trap I ever got I did the same thing as you did. I used the dry peat / perlite in the pot and planted my plant. When I went to water it the peat starting bubbling up and then my plant pops out the soil.... It never made it
 
  • #18
Okay, so I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the water soaking method isn't going too well. Aside from it sitting in water, when I water it from the top, the water does find a path to the bottom, but now it always takes that path, thus not allowing any other sections of the peat to soak.

The good news is that beings I left most of the old dirt clump still on the plant, that portion of the soil is still retaining water (as it always did), and will most likely keep my poor VFT alive while I mutilate it a while longer.

I'm thinking I should undo my repotting thing, actually soak the peat this time, and try again...

The sad thing is that this isn't my 1st VFT, but in all defense, it is my 1st repotting attempt
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  • #19
Id take the plant out. Get a big bowl and pour the soil out of the pot into the big bowl. Add the water, use your hands and mix it around sqeeze it etc. Then put the soil into the pot..
 
  • #20
Just to follow up, I un-did my awful potting and potted my VFT correctly this time and it looks much better - thanks all for your input
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