Joe,
thank you for sharing your experience in growing sans, for newbies this is really very interesting.
Ton de Waard.

I agree with you, Ton. Joe, thanks so much - I'm going to have to read that a few times to absorb it; your kindness is much appreciated!

I also enjoyed your rambling thoughts. One of the things I love about plants is studying their physiology. Your post is definitely worth rereading--please continue with more observations!

I live with the plants constantly coming out of drain holes. Bulb pans (plastic) are sometimes useful for sans with long rhizomes. This style of pot generally doesn't have side drain holes plus, the round shape encourages rhizomes to grow around and around until they are ready to sprout. Once or twice though, I have found that the rhizome came out the drain hole at the center of the bottom of the pot.

While the one gallon "growers pot" is definitely problematic with their lqrge side drain holes, I find the five gallon size is very useful for some of the giants--at least if you underwater and have very good light. A friend put his metallica in one and it took off, with six foot leaves. I put my ugly ugly senegambica in one and it actually grew into a decent plant. Then it popped a hole right through the middle of the pot and shot out a rhizome that grew about 18" and landed in the saucer of a neighbor, where it grew in through the drain hole, etc. etc. But, providing the plant doesn't smash through the side, the five gallon pot is useful because it is taller than wide, so doesn't take up a lot of room in a crowded collection. I think they are 12" in diameter, while a one gallon is 6". One wasy to prevent rhizomes from shooting though drainholes is to cover the holes with a piece of screen, either galvanized metal or plastic. They now sell plastic screen in rolls at hardware stores. It is easy to cut with scissors and holds the soil in while keeping out the slugs and pill bugs. Note: this is the sort of good advice that I don't actually follow myself (yet).

Jon

Jon: I tried using screening in the bottoms of my pots, but found that when I wanted to repot to a larger size or send a plant to someone, lots of fine roots had grown into the screening and got ripped away. Does this matter to the plants? Of course, even if it does matter, maybe Sansevierias cause so much trouble with their wandering ways that fine roots being damaged is the lesser of two evils, but for now, I have switched back to putting gravel in the bottoms of my pots.

Thanks Joe for your observations,
Could you tell us in what type of climat-conditions you are growing your plants.
I noticed big differences f.e. between in and outside.
And I can imagen the differences between "inside in a Northern place" and "outside in a southern place" just will be huge.
In our climat were we can keep them the whole year outside, the plants allways seems to grow.
So it nice to compare growinghabits between the different zones.

I noticed this year with S. grandis in a cylindrical pot that some rhizomes just didn't come out of the pot.
The rhizomes just died (dried) in the center against the side of the pot.
Jon D. could you sent us a foto of one of your plants in a bulbpan.
I would like to see this bulbpan because I am not sure what this is.
You also are saying the following:
"I find the five gallon size is very useful for some of the giants--at least if you underwater and have very good light"
please could you explain this underwatering and very good light relation.

Saludos Jover

Hi Jover, I underwater because I have too many plants and not enough time or energy to keep everything properly watered, potted up and the garden watered. So, I just try to keep up. I guess what I meant was that sanseverieras do well in large pots if they are allowed to dry out between watering, just as we do with smaller plants. Sanseverierias do like to be grown with some care though they are tough. If given water on a regular basis they grow much faster. If dried out too severly they start to die back. For example, I have had full sized leaves on masoniana just dry up and turn this amazing golden color. I had thought of giving them to someone for flower arranging. Lighting for sansevierias is also a little controversal. I have many of my plants in pots in my living room, which has a long east wall of big picture windows. I found that they all can take this bright light, though the trifasciata types really like to be in lower light. So, if one is underwatering and also exposing a plant to very bright light, then a big pot like a five gallon nursery pot is OK.

Here in California, our typical outdoor nursery containers come primarily in one and five gallon pots. The one gallon is about 6 inches in diameter and about 8 inches deep. The five gallon is 12" in diameter and about 14 or 16" deep. They are made of black plastic and have rather large drainage holes that are on the sides and bottom of the pots. Since these pots are designed for use with bulk potting mixes they have drain holes that are too big for our dry gritty succulent mixes. I am always trying to pot things up while the potting mix is pouring out the drain holes.

A bulb pan is a term for the shallow type of round pot, either in terra cotta or plastic. They are thus much wider than they are deep. They also have their drain holes on the bottom whereas a typical deeper plastic pot will have drain holes along the bottom rim, with some of the drain hole area on the sides (like the nursery pots). So, an eight inch bulb pan might be about 3" deep , while a regular 8" pot is more like 6 1/2" deep. Sorry for all these measurements in inches. As for pictures of my plants--one of these days I'll get a digital camera and start posting--maybe this year! ;)

I generally don't see rhizomes dry up rather than sprout. When that happens I think that something wrong has happened. It generally seems that rhizomes will find a way to light eventually. What is frustrating are those species that want to make long rhizomes that need to wind around and around before they sprout. This is particularly true for the nice small foliaged but very long rhizomed S. concinna (with spoon type leaves). I actually got a nice looking pot of this by putting a number of growths together in a 10" plastic bulb pan and then letting it slowly fill in as the rhizomes eventually sprouted within the pot.

Biwako, those fine roots that attach to the screen won't be missed when you repot. Or, you can transplant leaving the screening attached to the roots.

By the way, on the subject of big nursery pots and sans, I have one plant that I put in a black plastic cymbidium pot. These are large, heavy duty pots that are wider and shallower than the five gallon pots--in about 3-4 gallon sizes. They are hard to come by but great for large plants. I have one that a S. kirkii v. kirkii has just distroyed. The pot has several large cracks and holes, with the soil spilling out. But, the plant continues to grow and I have yet to do anything about it. The pot sits in a plastic saucer which contains the overflow of soil and plant now.

Jon

Jon: I always learn something from your posts, and I certainly enjoyed hearing about the doings of your rambunctious plants this time! I can't wait for mine to begin acting up (maybe in the spring?). I am new to Sans and at the stage of fearfully hoping that I am not doing anything wrong to all the beautiful plants I got from Russ and the few I bought. It's like a mother with her first baby.

Thanks Jon for your answer about the underwatering and the light.
I bought yesterday something simular to your description of the bulbpan, I will give it a try with some cuttings.
It would be nice if you could make some foto's so you could share them with us.
I thought that the S. concinna was making aerial rhizomes, like parva or am I wrong?
A few weeks ago I got in a exchange a concinna so next year I can see myself the growth of this species.

Jon, I also liked your idea of the screen in the bottom of the pot. I do not really like pot shards, and gravel just falls out. I have been thinking about experimenting with something like coffee filters. Do you think they would work or just disintegrate.?

Joe, I also enjoyed your "ramblings", very interesting.

Elsie

I hope both J de Rosa and Jon D. will continue to favor us with ramblings and advice of all sorts. There being so little about Sans in books, this information is invaluable.