I have a large (understatement here.........LOL) BOP. Actually it is several plants in a 16 inch pot. Can't be hardly any soil left in the pot anymore; the plants have gotten so big that the bottom of the pot won't sit level anymore. Should I just put it in a 20 so it doesn't get shocked to Kingdom come or try and divide it/them? And how do I go about dividing if I go that route? The same way I did my alocasia? Just kinda pry and bust up? Or get an ax???? LOL The foliage is probably about 5 feet tall and I need to do SOMETHING with it, or I will have bad dreams for neglecting it so long. :>)
It should be singing my praises, tho, for saving its life about 6 years ago when I purchased it for $5.00 at a end-of-season sale at a large garden center. Looked like it have been through a war and lost. Figured with the g'house it would have a chance. It's bloomed sporadically the last 3 years.
B.O.P repotting ?
Spread a tarp, get yourself set up, slice off any roots coming through the drain or elsewhere, jiggle the root ball and pull that baby out of its pot.
You should be able to repot or divide, with the aid of a clean, sharp, serrated knife. My experience is that you'll find distinct "tuber"-like structures along with some finer, white roots.
If you want to divide up the plant, cut through the whites, break the tubers apart, into as many clumps as you want new pots. The "tubers" can be planted singly and thrive, so you can really get creative here.
If you are re-potting up, trim the rootball so you can loosen up the tubers and pull out any dead ones, without breaking the whole thing into separate pieces. When you re-pot, wash or loosely tamp new soil with Osmocote down into the areas you loosened up.
Good luck --send pics, please.
I think butchering an elephant will be simpler than trying to repot this beast. LOL Am *thinking* of tackling it tomorrow.......
Yes, I will photo the process. No Osmocote, tho.....hmmmm......oh, I know, I have to go to town anyway tomorrow (getting a new head) so can pick some up at WM.
I put the osmocote in the bottom new dirt of the pot and mixed it up. Here are the pix...............first one is the "old home".
Close-up of the root system........I didn't have the heart to chop it up.....but I'll have to when it outgrows the new pot. It almost gave me a hernia to move it and lift it into the new pot. There weren't any rotten or crappy roots on it at all.
And the new home..........
Stand back! She looks ready for a big growth spurt.
I can only hope.........I will have to hire a crane to move it if it gets much heavier. I LOVE big plants. Good thing I have a BIG, TALL g'house. LOL
You could have three or four BIG plants in a couple years if you split that baby up --they'd be easier to lug around...for a while.
When my BOP (seed grown) pushed itself out of its pot by several inches, I pulled it out, trimmed off the bottom ten inches or so with a pruning saw, added some new soil to the bottom of the pot, and put the plant back in. It acted like nothing happened. Then I left it out two winters ago and thought I lost it but it put some new shoots up in late spring. I guess it didn't like ten degrees for a couple of nights so now I drag it back in for winter.
Cutting off the bottom of the rootball might not have helped the plant --instead, loosening up the rootball (or splitting it vertically) leaves full rhizomes in place and should be much more helpful and effective.
Didn't appear to hurt it any though. Should throw it out because it is too big to bring in and out of the basement each year. I did get rid of my white BOP because it was too large.
I have a white one too, and don't expect to ever see it bloom. Hate to throw it out, tho, as it's about 8 feet tall.