Repotting fiasco....

[Kate]

My P. primuliflora has produced 3 plantlets. Yesterday I noticed that they were starting to crowd eachother out a bit so I decided that repotting would be neccessary.... If I had only known how difficult that would be I might have decided to wait a few more weeks until they were a bit bigger.

I started by using a chopstick to ease the plantlets out of the soil without disturbing the parent plant... this worked somewhat... that is until the last plantlet it was a bit closer to the base of the parent and when I lifted it out the chopstick slipped and flipped the parent out where it landed upside down on the hot tub  

  No damage done though!

So I now had 3 plantlets and the parent plant to pot up. Which is where I really ran into trouble. The parent had been sitting on the top of a hump of soil in it's pot so the leaves were kind of drapping down the sides of the mound and the tips were below the roots. The plantlets were also growing this way.

I won't go through the various angles, postitionings, and implements I tried to get the soil mounded back up around the roots under the leaves, I'll just say it took over an hour and I eventually ended up using a toothpick to ease the leaves out of the soil I had them accidentally burryied in and I still think the plants are just kind of sitting on the surface of the soil with a little soil around the roots  

.

I am sure that this is not a normal experience with repotting pings, so what did I do wrong and how can I avoid it in the future?

Thanks

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Maehem,

It is a fairly normal experience for me as many Pinguicula have this characteristic of reflexed leaves. Where the leaves are basically pushing against their media while the crown and roots of the plant are anchoring it against this and other pressures. I have used two techniques for overcoming this issue during repotting: The first is to form a mound of loose media which extends a fair way above the surface of the pot, then to form a depression which will fit the roots and crown of the plant, insert the roots and crown into this depression and let the mounded media push the leaves back into their normal positions and then using any device shaped like a popsickle stick work the media firmly around the roots and crown of the plant until it is held in place. This can be a delacate operation, not to harm the plant. Second, pack the media very firmly into the pot and then force a depression into the already firm media to fit the roots and crown. Now place the plant into the depression and holding my hand cupped over the plant and with my fingers holding the pot I tamp the bottom of the pot into the palm of my other hand, thereby setting the plant firmly into its pot and media.

 

[Kate]

Oh...

 

 I hadn't thought of that last one... that sounds like it could work... Thanks!!!!  

 

 

 I am off to go repot my plants. I was right they were just kind of sitting on the surface and we had a tiny breeze last night... blew one of the babies out of the soil and upside down into a neighboring pot

 

[schloaty]

Hi Kate,
If the Primuliflora are as hardy as the Moranensis (spelling?), you don't really need to worry. I Tortured my poor Moranensis. It lived through going too dry, too wet, root rot (as a result..it actaully had almost no roots at one point), falling out of the pot and lying face down on the deck in the blazing sun ALL DAY, and probubly some other infractions I'm forgetting about....They take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. The darn thing even produced an off-shoot for me which I have now also potted up.