Time to repot

Sometimes it's hard to know when to repot a plant. Other times it's not.

Anthrium llewelynii has outgrown the pot

When I got Anthurium llewelynii I planted it in a mesh pot in all sphagnum. I'm not sure what possessed me to do so, as most of my Anthurium are growing in a chunky potting mix. Then I suspended that mesh pot in a ceramic pot, which is where it has stayed for the last few years. When I water I have to check and make sure there isn't much standing water in the ceramic pot since it doesn't have any drainage holes. The plant has loved this setup and put out a lot of roots. Recently I was doing some repotting and decided to check on this one.

A large root mass growing outside the mesh pot

Wow! That's a lot of roots outside of the pot. I had to study it for a little bit and determine what to do.

So far so good

I really liked the pot, especially since the plant has done so well in it, but I decided the best thing to do for the plant was to cut the pot away to free the roots and keep them intact. It was a tedious procedure.

The trickiest part

I remember from an orchid repotting seminar that every broken root is an opportunity for introducing bacteria and rot. I tried to minimize breakage. The roots were thick, fleshy, fuzzy and brittle but I managed to remove the pot in pieces and only broke a few roots.

Finally free

Once it was all free I had to pick a suitable sized pot, both in width and depth. I have a habit of picking oversized pots, but with this many roots I felt justified going big.

Repotted Anthurium llewelynii

I also decided to go with a richer potting mix. Hopefully my Anthurium llewelynii likes its new home.