Transplanting carnivorous plants is fairly easy. Some people vigorously shake them until all the media falls free. Please don't do this, it will kill your plants.

The first is a little easier. All you need to do is fill up the new pot and leave a hollow in the center large enough to accommodate the old pot. Simply tip the potted plant upside down to get the media to slide out. Then sit it in the hole, add media as needed and water in well.

When you need to bare root it takes a little more effort, not much though. We do this mainly for shipping or taking root cuttings. You don't need to get all of the media off, just go for the bulk of it that comes off easily. Pictured is Drosera Adalae after it has been bare-rooted and prepared for root cuttings. Nearly all the media fell free, rarely do you actually need to get all the media free. I generally just get what comes easy.

For plants that come bare-root in the mail, please skip down to the planting section.

The best way to do this is to bare root the plant. Follow the directions above for getting the media out of the pot. Now all you do is sit the plant in water deep enough to cover the media. The media will crumble and fall free. Once the bulk is off you can gently swish it around to free up anything else thats loose. You do not need to get all of it off, the majority is fine. Going after all of it can damage the roots. Then your ready to plant.

Keep sundews above the water line to prevent them from getting yucky. Forceps work excellent for holding them at water level until the media breaks free, slip them under for bottom support, instead of holding a leaf for example. Be extremely careful of the smaller sundew roots, namely rosetted sundews with thread-like roots. It doesn't take much weight hanging onto them to break one. Should that happen though, turn it into a root cutting and proceed. You don't want to raise a plant out of the water by the plant, reach into the water and give the roots support as you raise it out or roots can be ripped free from the weight of media.

Here we are removing sarracenia from their pots after they have entered dormancy, we are bare rooting them. This method can be applied to most any of the carnivorous plants to bare root them. Just remove what comes off easy, don't pick at it to get everything. The bulk will fall right off.

First get a bowl or bucket that can hold the pot your working with. You want something deep enough to cover the media with water, keep in mind the water level will rise when the media is placed within it. Use acceptable cp water, ie bottled or RO "sodium free".

Let it sit in the water for a few minutes to get fully saturated, often most fall free on its own in a couple minutes. Watch sundews, you never want a sundew to touch the water or it will get gunked up pretty quick.	This has massive roots in it, so falling free isn't going to happen. When you find yourself in this situation just keep working with it. I grasp it and gently wave it back and forth in the water. Without the roots of over 50 Capensis this alone almost always works.

For super stuborn media you can help things along by using your fingers to help separate the media from the roots. Be extremely careful not to damage anything. When the top layer has live moss growing I generally peel that off too. You can set it aside to place back on top of the new pot, it will speed live top growth up by a bunch.	As your working you can gently swish the roots around to help wash the bulk of the rest away, you don't have to get all of it. Most of it will do, or even just enough to get it into your new pot. Be careful as you can pull roots free if you swish too much or with too much media still attached.

Notice how the water is getting yucky? Of course you do, this is why you want to keep sundew leaves up out of the water. Should you make a mistake and get one gunky don't fret too much though. After you get it planted up and when your watering it in gently rinse it off some. Seldom brings it back to perfection but it will do wonders, once some new leaves grow it will look great anyway.

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This one is as bare rooted as any ever need to be. Even if it had more media still attached it would be fine, you don't have to get all of it. Mainly just get what comes off easy and let it go. Excessive playing can lead to shock, otherwise this is an almost shock free method to bare root your plants.

From there its simply a matter of potting it up.

We'll add some more pics and a better how to when we do our next plant. In the meantime you can check out the Cuttings Guide, Potting section. We show how to pot up plantlets but the methods are the same, don't worry about acclamation. Just apply the same principle to whatever you are planting.

If at all possible soak the roots of bare root plants in SuperThrive^TM for 10 or 15 minutes before potting. This will help prevent shock, especially if yours just arrived in the mail. Sources for SuperThrive^TM are listed on the links page.

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The main difference from the guide is the size of hole you make in your media. For something larger like this we make a large hole big enough to hold the roots and deep enough they dangle freely. This hole was made by simply removing handfuls of media. It is about the width of my hand and almost 7 inches deep. I like to pile the media up around one side of the hole to use to fill the bulk of the hole once the plants in place. The hole nor the mound look as big as they are, depth is hard to pick up with a camera. It's a 16" pot, three sarracenia will reside in it.

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I like holding it against one side of the hole and gently shoving the mound of media into the hole. Hold the plant at the finished desired height when your filling it in. Add more media as needed. You should NOT pack media into the hole as you can, and probably will, rip some of the roots off. Water in well once you have the hole filled adding more media as needed. Watering in will pack the media down into the hole and ensure the roots are as they should be. Allow to drain well for several hours when your done. You should hold or support the plant when you water it in too, otherwise it can sink with the media and getting it back up is not easy.