Repot Prayer Plant – Wide Shallow, One Size Up

Repot M. leuconeura into a wide, shallow pot, one size up. Roots run sideways. A tall cup leaves a wet column the plant cannot use.

Wide and shallow, one size up

Roots run near the surface, so a shallow pot matches the root run. [1] Do not let water stand on the crowns. [2]

Choose a pot about one to two inches wider, and not much deeper than the root run. A half-pot is closer to the truth than a tall cachepot. [3] These plants grow slowly, so every two or three years is often enough. [4] Newly bought plants can often stay in the nursery pot for a year unless the roots are already jammed.

• Size up one step if the root ball is packed and the plant is otherwise firm.
• Same diameter, new mix if soil is tired but roots still have space.
• Shallower pot, same width if the current cup is a deep soggy column.
• Same or smaller if you trimmed a lot of rot.

How to lift and mix

1. Water a healthy plant the day before so the root ball slides. Skip the soak if you already suspect rot.
2. Tip the pot, support the crown, and ease the root ball out. Do not yank patterned leaves.
3. Trim only dark, mushy roots. Loosen circling roots with your fingers.
4. If a side clump already has its own roots and several stems, you can separate it now — that ritual is on How to Propagate Prayer Plant.
5. Add a base of airy indoor mix plus extra perlite or bark. Set the plant at the old soil line, fill around the sides, water until runoff, empty the saucer. Do not fertilize for about a month.

Skip gravel in the bottom. Fine wet peat in a larger, deeper pot is how a “successful” repot turns into yellow leaves. Leave about an inch of headspace. If the only pretty pot is tall, keep the plant in a shallow nursery liner inside the cachepot and empty standing water after every soak.

What fails a prayer plant pot

• A decorative pot with no drain hole.
• A tall deep pot “for style.”
• Jumping three pot sizes.
• Fertilizer on day one.
• Water sitting on the crowns.

Keep bright indirect light after the move. Water when the top just begins to dry — a larger pot stays wet longer. Daily humidity stays on How to Grow Prayer Plant.

Wide and shallow, one size up. Grow light on How to Grow Prayer Plant.