Question
Hi Nick,

I have a 2 year old orange BoP in the house in England. I keep it indoors and have a very sunny room with all day sunshine, so in general the plant has been doing very well up to now. This year was growing like crazy and I think I can hope for a flower next year.
Currently it is in a 5 litre pot (32cm heigh). Suddenly it started getting yellow from the bottom very quickly, I read some older opinnions of you on the topic so I believe it is a drainage problem. The drainage wholes on the bottom of the pot are obstructed by the roots of the plant that are showing out of the wholes and I believe is holding water. I haven't watered it now 10 days but the soil still stays wet.
I am planning to repot today or tomorrow and put 2inches of pebbles on the bottom. What do you think? SInce the roots are showing from the bottom of the pot, shell I use a bigger pot? I have read that BoP grows good in smaller pots but now I am unsure. What size of pot would you recommend? And in general, deeper or wider?

Thanks very much!

Toni

Answer
Hi Toni, it sounds like it is indeed pot bound, and another indication is when the new leaves are somewhat stunted and don't reach the size of previous ones; I would repot as you stated with drainage medium and go for a deeper, rather then wider container. Keep in mind, Birds aren't the best choice for container growing because of their potential, but if it is to be, then deeper is better. A 5 litre container isn't that big, so I would kick it up to a container twice its dept and width if you can find one, its not good practise to just graduate to the largest pot you can find, it is far better to graduate slowly, in this case, because of its small size, exponentially.  The bird should be happy for quite awhile in this size container, but eventually as it gets larger it will start to take over that room LOL ...good luck, and remember to keep the leaves misted whenever you think of it:)Nick