Someone gave me one of those little “lucky bamboo” plants a couple years ago. It’s doing quite well, it has one shoot about a foot long and another about 3/4 of that size. There’s also lots of leaves growing off it. It is getting too big for its pot, though.
It’s in a little ceramic cup (actually about a measuring cup in size). I want to move it to a larger ceramic container, but I’ve never done it before, and I don’t want to kill it. So what I’m wondering is:
-What kind of substrate to use (it’s currently living in small rocks that are in the cup, but would gravel work also?)
-Any other tips that would be beneficial for its health
Dracaena Sanderiana is the correct name.
Use google on that name and you should find what you need.
Essentially any organic mix you put the plant it will start to rot the base of the plant and it will die. Plain water (without chlorine and flouride) is best, but I understand that sand or small pebbles to keep the plant upright in a pot will aslo work.
This Dracaena is slow growing, so don’t look for instant growth when you transplant it.
Pebbles are good. In my experience with the little fellas, they actually like physical abuse, the little masochists. Here’s how it happened: Coworker had a little pot with four of them. Said pot had soil in the very bottom, rocks on top, plants sticking in rocks. Pot stood at the edge of a bookshelf at work. One day when I walked by, I bashed the poor thing off the shelf and sent rocks skittering across the floor, while the poor “bamboo” flailed about on the tile with their little stalks bouncing on the floor.
I felt really bad, apologized to the poor blighters, and quickly picked up the rocks and shoved the plants back in place before the coworker who owned the plants came in.
Within a few days, the durn plants grew about 2 inches of new leaves.
A couple of weeks later, I did the same thing (it was another accident, I swear! I’m not a plant accoster, really!)
Same result.
From then on (after moving the plant to a better shelf), everytime I’d walk by I’d tease the plants, roughing up their leaves a bit, tapping my fingernails on the stalks and making idle threats. They loved it. Grew the most lush foliage I’ve ever seen on a dime store “lucky bamboo.”
The stalks are very slow growing, as Caught@Work notes. But if you get a little rough with the fella, he may reward you with some great leaves.
