How to Transplant Large Leaf Philodendron Outside

The Tropical Grower is featuring How to Transplant Large Leaf Philodendron Outside because I had the chance to transplant 3 a couple of weeks ago, and the information out there is seriously lacking.  The problem is most people grow these as houseplants, and I didn’t need to repot one.  The plants being transplanted were bigger than me.

Now, I should say right-off this was not my first time transplanting one, not even close, but I tend to like information and a brush-up is always good. My last transplant died. It needed more water. What else could I learn? No dice. 

We grow several varieties of Philodendrons both the plant and vine varieties out in Our Garden.  Growing Tropical, these things love – love – love our natural environment, and they spring up in places you both expect and don’t.  The vines varieties get wildly out of control, and most of the larger varieties act exactly like bulbs using corms, dividing and spreading, at least in Our Garden. Each variety transplants similarly with some important things to remember as a grower.

Boney Finger Philodendrons or Philodendron Trees

Unlike the other varieties of Philodendron, Boney Finger is very tree-like with a trunk that grows along the ground, like a vine, planting tentacle roots as it goes.  It’s a progression plant and definitely would be considered walking in that it moves around.  While the single head of leaves turns almost 90 degrees upright from the trunk, the trunk itself lays horizontally on the ground.  

Each leaf is 5 to 6 feet long and can double as an umbrella.  As each leaf emerges, the older ones at the bottom die, detaching from the newly grown trunk which sends out a set of tentacle roots – 4 or 5 in all directions, and it usually falls over a bit as the whole plant travels forward.

If the plant stops falling over a little as it grows, it will grow straight up for a short distance before the top heavy leaf head will fall over or snap off at the trunk.  Ours never get taller than 6 feet more or less before an afternoon storm snaps them.  If you’re okay with the location, the tentacle roots should still be attached, and it’s just a matter of stabilizing the leaf head and whatever trunk is left, upright, in the ground.  Ready to grow. So, if you plan for these, they are a breeze to grow.  They also offer big time screening.

If you don’t plan for them, they destroy fences, choke out their neighbors, and are the tentacle vines of nightmares.  But, hey, that’s if you can get them transplanted and growing healthy.  Fortunately or not, transplanting them is not that hard, just digging intensive.

Plan An Area

Boney Fingers need an area.  Absolutely do not stick them next to fences or structures.  Ours grow in full sun within an 8 foot wide by 12 foot long area to migrate around.  It probably should have been cut off at 4 feet wide, but we’ve been lazy about it.  Since there is nothing but a big grassed area on the other side, priority is extremely low.

We did at one point make the mistake of planting one next to an internal fence.  These are trees that grow like a vine.  Having something for it to climb is very bad for the thing being climbed.  Very Bad.  Think mangrove tentacle roots, growing as long and dense as possible to completely smother anything it can hold onto.  And the thing they’re holding up is a tree trunk with a bunch of 5 foot long leaves.  So, these do not play well with others, or anything it can climb. Plan a large open area.

Basic Maintenance

Because Philodendron Trees are hearty growers, you need to give them enough room to grow.  If you do, it’s just a matter of going out and redirecting the lean when it reaches the end of the area you’ve planned.  They’re pretty self-sufficient. The big leaves fall, making its own self-replenishing mulch, helping to cut down on weeds, but it will also smother other smaller plants growing close.  Keep these out of the area.  

Boney Fingers grow in the direction they are leaning.  Grow it 6 feet directly out of the area, and lean it to grow directly back in 6 feet.  And yes, if the trunk remains attached, you will get crazy snaking trunks.  If it doesn’t want to lean, prop it upright and wait for it to get wobbly, or do it in stages a little at a time.  

You can also grow the trunks to create a living bed border around the area for them.  Unless you want the whole area filled with trunks, which can be a great weed mat, eventually it will need to be trimmed up.

Otherwise, there is no real maintenance for these.  The leaves are large, and they do die, covering whole areas.  You can remove them, but we usually allow them to compost in place naturally.  It’s a great nutrient boost and mulch for the 6 to 7 feet of area under the plant which can attract weeds.

Propagating

Once the plants grow about 6 feet of trunk and they’re happy or stressed, they send up a baby close to the original planting location.  If you’re impatient or need a new plant now, you can also trim the old trunk into sections with the tentacle roots still attached to each section and still buried in the ground. The stress usually produces a new sprout.

Baby plants emerge as a small single leaf, followed immediately by others.  Then, the tentacle roots come out trying to find their way into the ground.  I cannot stress enough, this is the ideal time to take the new baby, right before the new tentacle roots hit the soil.

Carefully remove the whole new shoot at the trunk.  Do not damage the tentacle roots.  Do not get the sap on you.  It can be very irritating, and it’s so sticky. You can also cut the whole trunk section or part of the trunk, but you risk upsetting the main plant if there are not many sets of active root tentacles between the head and the cut.  If there are at least 3 or 4 sets, I don’t worry about it at all.  Again, be careful of the yellow-orange sap.  Thick, sticky, and irritating to skin. Blah!

While I would usually stick something this small in a pot to control its conditions for a bit longer, you can transplant it directly to a new location.  Away from structures or fences. The more you have to bury, the more stable it will be in the new location.

Non-Ideal Tentacles Rooted

If you have waited too long to transplant and the tentacle roots have burrowed down into the ground, everything gets so much more complicated.  First, it has probably weaved those roots through the main truck and all the big roots, already growing there, making a huge root mess to unwind.  Systematically digging up under everything finding roots to weave back up through is no fun, I know, I just did it.  Dang.  Twice. Double Dang. But we had a need for them elsewhere, sometimes you just have to go with it.

Your other option is leaving the new plant there to start over at the original spot and transplanting the main plant.  Moving the main original plant is so much more risky.  The trick is digging up all the tentacle roots.  Good luck with that. Chuckling.

I never get them all.  I putter-out at a few feet of digging, but I try to get far enough on each tentacle that it has a small cluster of roots attached to each tentacle, sometimes just one single additional root when I get really tired.  It’s so much digging.  The longer and more trunk sections with attached tentacles you have to move, the more likely it is to root in the new location.

Relocating

Whether you are moving your plant a long distance or a short one, do yourself a favor and tie it up. Also grab a buddy. Each leaf is about as tall as me. So, this is a heavy puppy. Starting your transplant by tying the branches together gets you off to a good start. The leaves fall in a 360 degree round, and it’s very dome-like. Pulling the big heavy leaves off the roots will save you a ton of time wrestling them while you are digging at roots from all angles. Be Careful with the ties. Don’t get it so tight it damages the leaves.

Having a large mass of leaves also provides a perfect sheltered place to stick the bare roots you are digging out of the ground. I just threaded them up and in as soon as they cleared sand. It was hot, and I didn’t want the roots exposed to the sun too long.

In fact, given the chance to immediately replant alone or replant later with a buddy after mine flaked on me, I had to go it alone and hack more of the trunks than was healthy. It was a hold-your-breath moment for a couple of weeks to see if they’d survive. If I would have left them bare-root in the sun all day, they would not have survived. Sometimes all you have is poor choices. Dang. They’ve survived so far. We’ll see after the drought season.

Planting Hole

Whether you are using a pot or going directly into the ground, you’ll want to bury baby plant stems and tentacle roots up on a small mound of soil. It keeps water from pooling at the base of your plant while it’s rooting.  You can even bury the bottom of the first set of leaves.  What you are looking for here is to make it stable and get the tentacles rooted in the ground.  Add a stake for support when you’re done.

If you’ve taken it too early and the roots don’t reach the ground, it’s a much riskier plant.  It will either reach out the tentacles and find the soil or die.  If you are taking it early, try removing a section of the main trunk to plant under the ground, or bury the main section of the new plant further into the ground so the tentacle roots are also underground to give it a better chance.

For a large transplant, stabilize the leaf head upright and bury the tentacle roots.  It isn’t necessary to bury the trunk, but you can. It’s all about how to best keep it stable with the newest center leaves upright. You can bury the trunk under the leaf head, use a log to keep it in place, add a stake, or try all 3.  I like to make a small mound of dirt and dig a deep moat around it.  The trunk goes on the mound and the tentacles are dropped in the moat, worked into the ground, and buried.  It’s easy to work a shot or compost or nitrogen rich fertilizer into the moat where the roots are located.  We used Osmocote Smart-Release Plant Food.  

Pots

If you are moving it to an outside pot, use a sandy compost.  You’ll want a little more nutrients in a pot, and you’ll need a little less drainage assuming you have drainage holes.  If not, make them or use another pot.  You are looking for consistently moist nitrogen rich soil.  

Inside, you’ll want to use a nutrient rich soil, kept moist.  You don’t want it sopping, and you don’t want to let it completely dry out.  This is a tropical plant.  Heavy moisture and humidity are its friends.   

Ground

In the ground, it’s Black Sand for us, Sand + Compost, on the very sandy side.  We have to accommodate daily rains for a little less than half the year.  If you have less rain, you can bump up the compost.  You are looking for consistently moist, not wet soil.

Our rule of thumb is water once a day until fully established.  Ideally, you’ll plant them at the beginning of the rainy season, make sure they are watered through the drought season, and you should be good by the end of the next rainy season.  So, if everything goes right, a little over a year. 

Once established, the plants will have no problem weathering the drought season, but they need to be healthy and growing first.    

What to Expect

After a transplant, it’s going to lose most of the leaves you leave.  If at all possible, you want the top few leaves to remain.  If there is a new leaf in the center section, it will hopefully emerge quickly as healthy, but don’t sweat it too much if it comes out dying.  

Directly after a transplant, the plant is hopefully concentrating on getting its roots established.  Losing leaves is normal.  You’re looking for new leaves emerging.  Tentacle roots firmly planted in the ground thick and juicy.  Those are the signs the plant has rooted and is ready to grow.

The alternative is the leaves slowly turn yellow-brown and drop until the plant dies, not rooting.  Yellowing leaves generally mean too much water.  I made the mistake of moving a snapped head during the winter to a place without irrigation.  Dead.  Dead.  Dead.  And it wasn’t quick.  A slow, leaf by leaf end.

Vines

Ugh, I can’t get these to stop growing.  I pull them off everything and toss them into the county compost cans.  I threw a whole vine I pulled out of a bed up onto the box hedge and it rooted and started growing.  However, these really thrive in shade or partial shade despite their willingness to grow anywhere.

Pull the main stem out of the ground with roots still attached and bury the roots in a new location.  Trail or fasten the attached vine in whatever way you want it to grow.  For stems without roots, bury at a nub.  Yeah, those weird brown or white nubs or remove a leaf and bury the stem where it used to be located.  If you want to get fancy, you can stick a newly cut stem section in water and grow water roots to bury.  Or it will grow in water just fine.  

Large Leaf Vines

For Large Leaf varieties, it’s easiest to plant a small or young section of stem and let it climb.  It will get big on its own with no help from you whatsoever.  The size is triggered by its age and the stability of the thing it’s climbing.  The same plant will grow baseball size leaves on the chain link fence and umbrella size leaves up into the Laurel Oak Tree.  It’s an environment thing.

If you have to transplant a big leaf, already growing, vine, try to leave as many aerial roots as possible.  Dig up the underground roots and plant in black sand.  No need for a mound.  The more water the better.  Use fasteners to fix it to the new support.  You’re still probably going to lose all the leaves.

Again, planting the roots and piling the vine at the bottom of what you want it to climb works better than trying to attach it to something.  The new stuff climbing, attaching itself, will stay so much better.  But that requires patience.

Corms

Our Elephant Ears and African Masks are Corms, and they absolutely prefer partial shade to shade.  Otherwise, water, nutrients, and soil needs are the same as any Philodendron, the more water and nitrogen the better. Carefully dig up the corm with attached roots and move to a new location, just like a bulb. For more on repotting bulbs, check out, How to Repot Amaryllis Bulbs. The process is the same for corms, only you have to bury corms. We float bulbs on the surface of the soil.

Transplant during their dormant season.  Most varieties will at some point in the year lose all or most of their leaves.  It usually happens during the winter for tropicals, when the drought is at its height.  Simply dig up the Corms being careful not to damage roots and replant in the new location. 

Pay attention to the depth the corms have planted themselves in the soil.  Some like to be deep and some prefer to be closer to the surface. Most varieties will move based on their preferred height.  You want to make sure you get them back to where they are happiest.

Non-dormant varieties will require digging up a large ball of soil around the base when you move the plant for the best chance of success.  Make sure to unearth any extending roots including the tap root that are not included in the ball.  The more intact roots, the more likely it will survive.  These are also more likely to survive if transplanted at the beginning of the rainy season.

How to Transplant a Large Leaf Philodendron Outside       

Philodendrons are a great addition to tropical gardens.  While they are not the easiest grows, some planning can make them simple.  However, at some point, you are going to have to remove or transplant the large leaf varieties.

If you’re lazy or just don’t want the hassle.  Wait until your new plants start to grow, and remove all the older established ones to compost.  Cut the tentacle roots at ground level and chop everything else into movable pieces.  Be Careful of the sap.

However, transplanting can offer a whole new area of screening, and we like to spread our green around.