Caudiciforms: Repotting D. mexicana, 1 by AnalogDog

AnalogDog wrote:
When I got D. mexicana about a month ago it was in a 10' plastic pot standard shape. The plant just barely fit in that pot, and I wanted to give it room to grow. It initially had 2 vines which after untangling were only about 2 meters max. Well, there was no growth out of them when I got it home so I stopped watering it and started looking for a bigger pot, which I scored today.

Hearing the big problem with these plants is that rot if in too much moisture and only root from the sides, so a wider pot was advisable. While my pot was more normal dimensions I had a plan: half fill it with gravel and have only soil for 6-8" below the plant. Which is what I did.

Taking the plant out of the pot was interesting, as there were only 2 roots coming from the edge and the soil in the pot was quite wet. The plant was shaped like a big disk, flat on the back, roots coming from the edge. A real simple repotting job. A little gravel to cover the top and I was done. Nice job, Rob.

Then I went to carry it up stairs. Ugh. it must weigh 100 lbs with all that rock!