The best way to repot special plants, like the Venus Fly Trap, is to keep it a secret from the plant. Do not let it know that it has been repotted!
I do not have much luck with growing these from seed or via propagation, so I prefer to keep the ones I have alive, that is, to make sure they are not stressed in any way.
Here is a shot of half of my bug catchers. The one above seemed to be reaching out of its pot and we have not even reached 75 degrees. It is still spring time.
The plant in question is in the middle of the left most rectangular tray. The first step in the process is to make a place for the new bigger pot - you can see the empty spot where it will go.
It is not as if I was not already reorganising the entire group of small plants to make room for it already. I have a lot of babies that will need space in the tray when they are repotted as well, so this is necessary as we go into summer.
Next we have to gather up all the tools and materials for the job and bring our patient into the house for the secret repotting. I have sphagnum moss, both whole and ground up, perlite, the new pot (the one behind the largest trap) a disk cutter, masking tape, and a wire cutter.
Preparing the Pot and Moss
I take a handful of moistened whole moss, which cannot go through the drain holes, for the bottom of the new pot, and add some perlite on top of it. Give it a quick mix and then moisten a bowl full of ground moss.
It takes a very long time to get dry moss to absorb water, but I used a spoon to push it down into the distilled water that I poured into it.
Next we begin cutting into the pot from top to bottom. We will do that twice at 180 degrees from each other, essentially splitting the pot in half.
The pot will not fall apart at this point because the bottom is still holding it together. We will leave about a quarter inch at the top that is not cut. The roots of the plant are bonded with the moss inside it. I am trying to keep it that way. Do not cut the rim of the pot. That will be done in a few weeks.
Here is what that will look like after the plant has been in the new pot for some time. These two cuts in the sides will be holding the pot in place until the plant has put its roots down into the new, bigger pot.
We will have to remove the bottom of the pot, or we will not be able to get it out later.
We are essentially making a bottomless pot as follows.
Before cutting off the bottom of the pot, we need masking tape around the circumference, which can later be cut with a razor knife, a few weeks down the road.
Next, we must slice the entire bottom off of the pot. We have not damaged any roots up until now. There is a chance that some of the root ends could be cut but I know from experience that the Venus plants do not develop elaborate root systems that get bound up at the bottom.
Here is the finished product.
Next, I will finish prepping the new pot by adding moistened moss around the edges and adjusting how much is needed by gently placing the plant in its new spot until I get the height right.
I am looking to make sure the new larger leaves/traps will be higher than the rim of the new pot. You see that the plant will think it is still growing in the small pot because it is.
Another way to make the plant think it has not been moved is to mark the new pot with an "N" where the old pot had its "N" which stands for 'north' - That way the morning light will still be coming from the same direction that it is used to receiving.
All that is left to do now is fill in the sides with dry, ground moss.
The level of dry moss will change with time because it will get wet and the level will sink. That is another reason that we do not remove the small pot yet.
Let everything settle for anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months, then cut the tape and clip the plastic at the rim.
There she is, along side her older cousins, right in the spot that we prepared for her. I can also moderate the water given because this plant will have its own water dish at the bottom.
It is wise to water carnivorous plants only at the bottom and let the moss draw the water up to the plant. If these were indoor plants, I would make sure that the top moss is always dry, but they are not. We get rain storms quite often, especially this time of year. These plants live outside all winter and sumer.
I will leave you with this other shot which shows the Drosera Binata in the foreground. It has really grown since the last time I showed it. I had repotted a baby one that was in the same pot. Both mom and baby are doing very well!
I am still trying to find a good way of depicting them in photos. They are hard to capture because they are so thin. The camera always focuses on the background (as you can see in this picture).
Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Bug Eaters. They are really fun to cultivate.