I transplanted a few of the plants I got from Chuck Powell into
larger pots. I'm of the "bigger is better" potting school, and
sure enough, the D. natalensis I got had a root hitting the bottom
of the small pot it came in. I also re-potted some of my plants
into larger, square, pots, which fit nicely into the water trays
I have. I hope they survive, but since I'm VERY fast and careful
when repotting, I think they will. I love my plants. I "discovered"
a neat way of quickly re-potting. Take the new, larger pot, put
some soil init, then put the smaller pot into it, on top of the
soil, so the level of the tops of the pot are equal. Fill in the
space between the pot walls with soil, tamp it a bit, then remove
the inner pot. Quickly dump the potted plant and soil out, drop
it into the hole in the soil in the larger pot (just vacated by
the smaller pot), and it should fit almost exactly. Cool...
I got a really cool "pot" at a local garden store. It's a molded
plastic terra cotta coloured square pot, about 12" square, with
a removeable drain plug at the bottom, and 4 molded in feet at
the bottom corners. I filled it with 2" of washed pea gravel
for drainage, then about 10" of peat/sand, then 2" of live moss
as top dressing. In one corner I sunk a styrafoam cup w/ a hole
in the bottom into the soil, level w/ the top of the peat/sand.
I covered the top w/ some wire mesh I had lying around, then put
moss over that. Now I have a concealed cup in the soil, with which
I can check the water level in the undrained container. If I could
just figure out how to make little pungi pits to take out the birds
and squirrels I'd be all set. Anyhow, this potted plant will look
really nice when the S. leuc. comes up in spring. It will have
plenty of root room, should get big, and it's heavy enough no ones
going to walk off with it easily. I may get a couple more to do the
other Sarracenias I have. The pot was only $6.99. I also potted
up a S. flava in a 12" diameter round pot, with a layer of clear
polyethelyne inside to create an undrained pot. This too got the
cup in the soil treatment. I hope they don't have problems with
the re-potting. But they needed it. The roots were already to
the bottom of the 6"/155mm pot they were in. Now I also have more
room in my table-top greenhouse too.
While re-potting I found a slug, and an earthworm. Both made good
food for my Nepenthes :-).
Our wiring job at Chuck Powells seems to have some problems: it trips
the breaker every time it's used. Next Saturday I'm going back to
check it out. BTW, there's apparently a bog in Albion (up north?)
that has a decent stand of planted sarracenias. Chuck Powell and
Peter D'Amato are going there tomorrow: if I didn't have an appt.
I can't get out of I'd have gone too... BTW, if anyone's familiar
with greenhouse thermostats which have 3 wiring terminals, one set
of 2 for heating and the other set of 2 for cooling, I'd like to hear
from you. I'm wondering if we wired up the thermostat incorrectly
and that's what's causing the problem.
My terrarium at work is now full up. But there's still more
space in my office....