Sinningia leucotricha

This is Sinningia leucotricha showing the tuber filling a 5" pot. The clear pot allowed us to see the roots growing. The seedlings are growing all around the edges of the tuber.
I've been putting off repotting this one and now I broke the plastic pot trying to get the tuber out.
The plant is more valuable than the pot.

Had to carefully cut the pot off the tuber. The mix is very free draining, as the plants are watered heavily several times a week. The greenhouse uses RO water, with a dilute fertilizer made for RO water added once or twice a week.

As the tuber fills the pot, it limits the amount of water that gets into the mix. This is likely similar to what happens in nature, as the tubers fill cracks in the rocks.

The roots held the mix in a block. Great drainage is essential where the watering is heavy. The roots filled this pot in a few months after transplanting. This one got high light in the greenhouse most of the year, sitting at the south end of the bench. Whitewash in the spring and summer reduces the light by about half, to around 5,000 footcandles in the middle of a sunny day. S. leucotricha loves the sunshine. Dense silver hairs protect the developing leaves as the plants grow in full sun.

A few seedlings, showing the tiny tubers that have developed over several months. The seedlings have well developed tubers for the size of the plants. These came up in the pot in the spring; it's now December 15. We will be repotting these about every two weeks for maybe 5 times. Dale Martens taught us this method, and it works. See posts over the next 3 months or so updating their progress.

Most of the seedlings have been pried off, gently, to leave most of their roots. Then they just fell apart. A good look at the tuber. And the solid block of roots. The first 2 or 3 cycles of growth on seedlings of this, and many other sinningia species, do not look like the mature plant. There may be several pairs of leave on the stem, and the leaves may not be as silver. And there may be surprises, as there were other sinningias blooming near this pot.


Repotting a large sinningia tuber with a good root system is easy. I like a pot about 1 inch larger in diameter than the old one. Today, we had some clay pots, and chose an orchid pot with slots in the sides for extra drainage. It is a little bigger than the square clear pot this was in.

I mixed some peat,small wood chips and rice hulls mix [about half] with some small perlite, coarse perlite and turkey grit for great drainage. And a little horticultural charcoal for good luck. And put the solid block of roots in the pot, filling around it with new mix.
The clay pot will allow the soil to dry out faster than a plastic pot. Here at the greenhouse, the risk of too much water and root rot is a major concern when repotting sinningias. As the roots fill the new soil, they will dry the soil faster.
Better to repot twice than rot once.
The choice of clay or plastic pots, how heavy a soil to mix and how often to water depends on your conditions and methods of watering. I like very good drainage for larger sinningias. Seedlings and smaller or mini-sinningias get a mix that stays moist but not wet longer [at home].
Check back for more photos of the seedlings and the big tuber repotted.

Co-authored by Jinean and Chas
after a very good December day at the greenhouse