Enfield Snapper
Mame
I dug up this tiny antelope bitterbrush (purshia tridentata) in July while visiting my parents in the desert of southwest Washington. It's only about 3-4 inches tall. I didn't take any pictures of the roots, but they were about a foot long with feeders only on the ends. I didn't get all of them, either. I wasn't sure how it would react to collection, but I kind of coiled the long roots and put it into a 5 inch deep pot with 100% sand, which was the best I had available.
In September we had all the fires in Oregon. The temperatures dropped by about 20F and the little bitterbrush got confused. It dropped all its leaves and just went to sleep. I was a little worried about that. But here it is without leaves.
Fortunately it just started waking up. Sand is really hard to judge for watering and I was curious to see whether it would produce any roots higher up with more water regularly available to it, so it got its first repot a couple days ago.
This is about 10 times the root mass it had when I dug it up, so I was really happy with the results. I reduced it to the clump of roots at the top and put it in a 1/4 gallon fabric grow pot (which is shallower than the original but still oversized) of diatomaceous earth and pumice. It will probably stay there for the next couple years unless it gets unruly.
In September we had all the fires in Oregon. The temperatures dropped by about 20F and the little bitterbrush got confused. It dropped all its leaves and just went to sleep. I was a little worried about that. But here it is without leaves.
Fortunately it just started waking up. Sand is really hard to judge for watering and I was curious to see whether it would produce any roots higher up with more water regularly available to it, so it got its first repot a couple days ago.
This is about 10 times the root mass it had when I dug it up, so I was really happy with the results. I reduced it to the clump of roots at the top and put it in a 1/4 gallon fabric grow pot (which is shallower than the original but still oversized) of diatomaceous earth and pumice. It will probably stay there for the next couple years unless it gets unruly.
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