Repotting large horrida

[Mike]

Hi,

Still new to this, relatively, I was interested in how best to repot a fairly large Euphorbia horrida. About 2 feet tall, I got it at the club auction in December, and it has not been repotted since 1998.

. I was surprised when I asked one fellow at a nursery how to repot a mammillaria with about 3 inches of a root ball and he cut off about 2 inches leaving very little. Here, the root base is rock hard - I could not pry it apart with my hands like smaller plants. I would either have to water it or break off huge chunks I think, All advice appreciated.

Mike

[Buck Hemenway]

Mike,

First, I never get that lucky. Every time I take a big euphorbia clump out of a pot, it comes apart and I lose the clump form.

I know about older trees with pot bound root masses. For those, we assume that the active roots are mostly in the outer layer of the root mass. We cut the roots in a long top to bottom slice 1/2" or more deep, 3 or 4 times aroud the mass. This breaks up the swirling or up and down growth pattern of a number of the roots so they will grow out into the new soil. Rot should not be a problem for this old plant, but you could dust the cut roots with a rooting hormone to prevent rot.

Nice plant, probably nothing you can do to harm it except too much water over a long period.