Dividing Clumper Pots. How Often?

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Ophiuchus
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Dividing Clumper Pots. How Often?

Post by Ophiuchus »

I transplanted my 1-2 culm 3gal pots to 7gal Feb '17 and with single culm division I should get 4-10 new 7 gal plants per pot depending on the species. By recommendation from this forum, I'm waiting until Mar '18 (a full year) to divide.

This year I would like to divide my 3gal pots to make more 3gal pots. My question is how often can I divide a potted clumper during shooting season or are divisions only made annually late winter, early spring?

Thanks
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Glen
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Re: Dividing Clumper Pots. How Often?

Post by Glen »

You can, with care, divide them at any time. The problem with dividing during the growing season is that it will be harder to do this without damaging new growth. If you divide while new shoots are forming, they are quite easily broken. This also applies to new root and branch growth. When I divide in late winter, I find it is possible to get 100% survival of even small divisions, without losing any newly forming shoots.

I am guessing that you want to divide multiple times per year in order to increase the total number of plants that you can produce in a given time period. Without setting up a controlled experiment to compare the two options, here are my thoughts. Every time you make a division, there is some damage to the roots, which will cause a pause in growth, while the plant readjusts. I think the cumulative effect of this will be to reduce total production of shoots for the year. If you feel that you need to divide multiple times because the new plants are quickly becoming rootbound, thus limiting potential growth for the year, you could consider growing your stock plants in larger pots, to accommodate a full year's growth without much restriction. When you divide in late winter, you could then pot the divisions down into smaller pots for sale, again keeping some divisions in larger pots as stock plants.

In my area, March is a little late to make the divisions. By then, root and leaf growth has already started, and some of this tender growth will get damaged during division. My goal is to make the divisions after the threat of extreme cold is over, but before any new growth starts. Of course, things do not always work out perfectly, and sometimes divisions have to be made later. However, I do see reduced performance in the plants when they are divided after growth starts. Given the choice to divide earlier in the winter or later in the spring, I would divide early.

Note that everything I am saying is based on my experience in the subtropical/warm temperate climate in which I live. In a tropical or near tropical environment, or with a greenhouse, all this may work differently.
Ophiuchus
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Re: Dividing Clumper Pots. How Often?

Post by Ophiuchus »

Thanks Glen, you are a wealth of knowledge and a voice of reason. Yes, I'm attempting to maximize the number of plants propagated in the shortest length of time via division. You and others killed my dreams of culm cutting propagation. LOL

What size pot do you find is best for stock plants? I was going to use 7gal for the ease of handling, but I'm concerned they'll all sell before the following years division. However, I will be able to harvest from the plants in the ground Feb '19 for stock. I have yet to try dividing from grounded plants, but it appears to be more work than splitting pots annually. Hence the reason I need to master potted divisions if my biz is to be successful and keep a somewhat healthy 55yr old back. BTW...last year my 7gal plants were 3gal and have had a full years growth. The 7gal pots are root bound, but not so much that would have hindered growth and in need of division or transplant to larger pot late Feb '18.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like your advice (or anyone) on how I should proceed. My current inventory is 51 2yr old grounded plants (very few divisions this upcoming year '18 with a 9 species variety suited for climate), 31 7gal plants 4-10 culms and 179 immature 3gal plants (17 of these will go in the ground in Feb). My original plan was to buy wholesale this year and sell retail (approx $25 cost + expenses & $50 retail) until I can get established, but my calculator tells me I would be better off propagating my own this year '18 and open for biz next year '19. How would you maximize my potted plant potential for 2019?

Wow...this is like a college "quantitative methods for business application" question. The variable is growing experience of which I have very little and from a marketing perspective I have a lot of traffic exposure to a public oblivious to how quickly they can attain a living contained/non-invasive privacy fence. I do anticipate a learning curve for a few years, so I'll keep flipping houses during the interim.

Thanks Glen, I really do appreciate your time and insight.
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