Divide and Conquer

‘Tis the season for dividing and conquering.

I’m really… REALLY behind in my dividing, but that’s fine. *Sigh* unfortunately not all of my time is dedicated to the Sarracenia. Would be pretty awesome though.  Anyway, I’m only dividing the plants that need dividing and letting the rest grow out for another season … or three.

For those unfamiliar with the dividing process, here’s a quick example of how to divide and propagate Sarracenia.

The photo below is of a multi-multi growpoint Sarracenia, about to burst into growth. (This, by the way, is a fantastic red moorei)  and it’s on the verge of busting out of the pot.  Those leaves you see are the non carnivorous winter leaves that the plant produces to photosynthesize during the darker winter months. They be called phyllodia.

I like to have a small work area when dividing/repotting. Keeps me focused on the plant I’m working on.  I also have a little tub to work in to keep the work area somewhat clean preventing too much dirt from going all over the place.

After removing from the pot, I loosen up the media a bit.  Here’s a couple shots of the rhizome/roots and what goes on beneath.

Notice the awesome root system action going on below the surface of the soil. That’s hawt.

I look/feel for a place where I can break a good sized piece of rhizome off. See figure below —  my plan of attack will be separating the rhizome at the point where the skizzors will be following the dotted line.

Now, some people do use a sharp knife, or clippers to separate the rhizome. It’s all personal preference. With a plant of this size, I can actually break off a piece by hand pretty easy.

Grab life by the rhizome. Oh, and when dividing, I do like to try to get as much root in there as I can.  However, I have had plenty of success dividing these things and planting them without any root at all (just growpoint)– and they still do survive and eventually grow roots of their own.

Freshly divided rhizomes below, ready to be potted up.

… And after potting up, I trimmed the phyllodia (you don’t really have to, but it just looks cleaner for me…) and now it’s time to just sit back and wait for the new growth to explode.