I'm assuming you have no interest in investing in a HPS or metal halide light, so you'll probably wand a high intensity compact fluorescent bulb that pushes most of it's light from the blue end of the spectrum - that would be a cool white bulb. The bulb will need to be as close to foliage as possible (a few inches) w/o over-heating the leaf surfaces.

Now is a poor time to repot into any soil, and MG soil may not me the best choice. There are very few GOOD commercially prepared soils out there. Fafard makes 3 soils that are reasonably well-suited as media for houseplants, but it's not easy to find a dealer, or one interested in ordering the product for you. Most dealers get their products in one or two very large shipments in the spring, and often place those orders in the fall previous. If you can find some suitably sized pine bark, you can easily make your own soil, or amend the MG soil by adding a LOT of pine bark and some perlite to a small volume of MG soil. The plant likes an evenly moist (but never soggy) soil with LOTS of air surrounding roots.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand the last question. Could you rephrase, please?

Al

Good morning!

Do not use Miracle Grow soil. It holds too much moisture, compacts within a short period of time,
and will begin to accumulate excess salts from fertilizer and tap-water.

The best time to re-pot your Pachira would be later in the Spring, toward the start of Summer.
A mix of coarse Perlite, bark, and pumice or turface will make a well-draining mix that your
Pachira will love. If you don't have these exact ingredients available, let us know what you
do have, and we'll see if we can whip up a recipe that will have proper aeration, drainage, and
moisture holding capacity.

Make sure that the pot has drainage holes. Pachira likes to be thoroughly watered and thoroughly drained.

Give your tree as much light as you can. I don't use lights personally, but hopefully someone
can help you further.

Josh

Excellent information on the lighting, Al! ;-)

Owen, you'd be well served to read up on all the information Al has to offer.

Josh

Owen, Is it possible for your Pachira to receive natural sun and artificial light??

Actually, any bulb will do..Are you interested in incandscent or fluorescent?

Choosing light depends on the type of fixture that appeals to you and cost.

The inexpensive way is by hanging a shop light, then choosing Gro-lights or one white warm, one, white cool fluorscent bulbs. Both work fine.

Or, there are many ornate light stands that start from several hundreds to thousands of dollars.

How long have you had the Pachira? If it's newly purchased, wait a white before repotting..this way it will adapt to your conditions. Plants can go in shock from moving from location A to location B. Depending on your climiate, freezing temps could cause frost-bite..Another shocker.
Repotting late winter, early spring is ideal.

Unless there's something wrong with soil your Pachira is potted in now, there's no reason to remove it all.
However, if it makes you feel better, or reason to believe the soil isn't to your liking, take your tree outside, remove from pot, carefully loosen root ball, shake excess, then plant in fresh medium.

There is much debate about soils. I happen to use Miracle Gro for Cactus and Succulents, but amend with other mediums...eg, Perlite, coarse sand, small stones, and in some cases, bark and even Peat. (Peat is only applied to tropicals that require acidic soil...Pachira doesn't apply.'

When repotting, container should be 1-2 sizes larger than rootball.
My Pachiras do better on the tight side, but my goal is for a thicker trunk, not so much height.

During spring when many plants come to life, the additional 2 sizes will be enough room for roots to grow larger.
BTW, pots must have drainage holes.

What material is your new pot? Clay, ceramic, etc?

Howdy, Josh....Toni

Owen - Incandescent bulbs are pretty much a waste of energy when it comes to supplemental light for plants. They turn a large % of the energy consumed into heat instead of light. This necessitates locating the bulb far from the plant to avoid the heat they produce. Since the amount of light that actually strikes leaf surfaces is reduced by the square of the distance the leaves are from the light source, incandescent bulbs are basically inappropriate based on significant cost for very little gain. A 23 W fluorescent light produces the same amount of light as a 100 W incandescent for less than 1/4 the cost. Since you can locate a fluorescent light inches from the bulb (say 3"), and an incandescent bulb, because of the heat produced should be at least 36" from the plant, the incandescent bulb would be able to safely provide about 90X the amount of of usable light as the incandescent bulb at 1/4 the cost.

Also, for foliage plants, fluorescent 'grow lights' and lights labeled 'warm', produce much of their light in the wave lengths closer to the 'red' portion of the spectrum. Plants grown for their foliage or plants not specifically thought of as blooming plants perform MUCH better under plants that push light from the blue portion of the spectrum - and that would be something in the 5100K spectral range or above - cool white.

FWIW - tight roots slow growth and inhibit the potential increase in both trunk caliper and o/a mass. No plant likes or prefers tight roots.

Al

Hi - I'm new to the forum, and am delighted to find so many knowledgeable individuals willing to share. My husband and I have a Pachira (Money Tree) that we bought at Lowe's well over a year ago and it was about 2 feet tall and healthy-looking. As city-folk in Los Angeles, we put it on our balcony, in an alcove that still faces straight out, but is set back from the edge of balcony. It is partly sunny/partly shady -- seems to be a perfect spot. We named our Pachira (and call it by name) and it has been REMARKABLE -- growing to over 6 feet tall and lush and full. We have never done ANYthing to it, never repotted, etc. just water once a week and talk to it. Maybe it just loves sunny California and having a name, LOL!!! >>> about two weeks ago we had stormy Santa Ana winds, and even back in her alcove, our Pachira was tempest-tossed, and we heard her crash to the ground. NOT a good thing -- we have a table and chairs, and a tiny repotting bench that she managed to hurt herself on, on her way down. Of course, we set her aright, and soothed her, but we weren't sure what else to do. And then, about 2 days later, she began to drop leaves, and turn color--yellowish leaves at first, now turning brown and/or spotty. Not all leaves have turned yet, but a ton of them.We are thinking that we are going to have to be brutal and trim off the damaged parts, but we are also thinking it may be a good time to freshen her soil, since it has never been changed. On hand we only have the following two soils to use. MIRACLE-GRO Potting Mix (Tierra Para Macetas) with MICROMAX. and also MIRACLE-GROW Cactus, Palm & Citrus Potting Mix with a Fast-Draining Formula. We have no idea which -- if either -- of these would be good for her. And so we are "considering" mixing them half-and-half. Does anyone have any suggestions on: 1. SOIL 2. TRIMMING 3. ANYTHING else we can do to lessen her trauma, etc. Many, many thanks in advance. This is URGENT if anyone could possibly reply right away. Thank you so much.

Hey -- as a P.S. to the above, I have another question. While "fixing her up", we found holes in some leaves. The kind that seem to indicate bugs. Of course, all this started with the fall -- she was gorgeous before then. But....might she have bugs as well? If so, what do we use to help her? Thanks again.

You might want to start your own post seeing how this is an old one. You'll probably get a quicker response. ðÂÂÂ

Braided money treeI've had my money tree for nearly four years. Two of the six braids have died. A third is struggling (the leaves are browning). Over winter i'm careful not to overwater (a small amount every 2 - 3 weeks). It doesn't receive an enormous amount of natural light. I believe it may need to be repotted, and i intend to do this using 1/4 inch orchid pine bark fines (based on a rec i saw on another forum) mixed with perlite and pumice (aiming for 1:1:1) with some fertilizer. Any thoughts on weather this is the best course of action and any tips/hints about what i should be careful to avoid? Thanks!

Daniel, probably best to start your own Thread on this topic, and include pics.

Check this out: Pachira (Money Tree) - Spring re-potting pics