Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 1/10/2012

Question
Hi there! I recently purchased two 10-inch self-watering pots from Home Depot to transplant some of my Cephalotus into. I was thinking about planting two mature ~3-inch size Cephs (medium size Cephs I purchased from you guys recently) into one pot and three ~2-inch size Cephs into the second pot. There will be several inches between each plant as well. Is it a bad idea to grow multiple Cephs in the same, but large, pot? I would assume that more plants in a pot would use nutrients up faster but I don't mind repotting every year or so. My train of thought is that their roots will have a lot of room in these large pots so their roots aren't all crammed together and can branch freely. If it is a bad idea, I can purchase smaller pots for each individual plant, but I thought it would be easier to water and take care of them in these larger self-watering pots (and they'd look neat). Thank you in advance.

Answer
Hi Nicholas,

Using those size pots for the plants you're putting in them is going to be just fine.  Cephalotus are slow growing, so you'll have plenty of time to deal with it if crowding starts to become a problem.  Crowding would be a great problem to have with Cephalotus.  My only caution is to monitor the wetness of the soil carefully when you first transplant.  Self-watering pots whether they are the ones with bottom reservoirs and the little feet that go down, or ceramic African Violet pots tend to be different from pot to pot in how wet they keep the soil.  I have some 8" African Violet pots (6" are more common) that I planted Drosophyllum in one time.  I lost some because they were too dry.  The bare ceramic just didn't wick as well as in the 6" pots.  With Cephalotus you want damp, but not real wet soil.  Occasional drying of the soil surface is fine with them.  They are very prone to rot if kept too wet.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com