Howdy! Pachira aquatica will do well in a soil that drains quickly, indeed. Yes, you'll need to water more often during the growth season - but the trade-off is that the roots will be healthy and won't rot during the winter months. I'd make a 1:1:1 mix of bark, pumice, and perlite. Instead of pumice, you could also use Turface, or Napa diatomaceous earth, part #8822. These ingredients are similar in that they have a solid structure and great internal porosity (to hold moisture and nutrients). I use quartz gravel and perlite together - the gravel gives some weight to the mix, while providing excellent stability and air-circulation and while holding very little moisture. I've also read that rough, sharp grit in your mix will promote fine root-growth. The bark that I use is called Micro Bark: it is pine/fir bark. I screen my particles so that they are between 1/8 and 3/8 of an inch. Ideally, however, all of my ingredients would be just about 1/8 of an inch. This is the critical particle-size at which a container mix will retain moisture (under 1/8 holds water - over 1/8 gives up water). This is a general rule, assuming equally-sized particles. There are many ways to modify this basic blend to get the mix right for your growing conditions. Since Pachira aquatica (Malabar Chestnut) comes from wetland areas in South America, I have always assumed that it likes to be flooded...and then allowed to dry. Outside in partial shade, my Pachira is drying out every 2 - 3 days. During the winter in the house, I cut watering back to once a week (sometimes longer). Oh! Almost forgot a final piece of advice! Avoid the braided Pachira...in my opinion, they're nothing but trouble (often, one of the trunks is totally rotten from the start). A single trunk, with healthy foliage, will serve you better. Josh

Well, you just have to continue the braid. As long as the stems are supple, it'll be fine. When you tie the braid, make sure to use something soft, so it doesn't cut into the stem. I would keep moving the tie upward every few weeks or so. Josh

Hi - you can first remove the rocks by carefully prying them at the centre using a small bottle opener (pointy end) and they should come off in chunks. I'll also tell you that no bonsai worth its name is ever braided, tho' I know tons of those things are sold as 'bonsai'. And because you have no plant growing experience to begin with, I strongly suggest you forget the bonsai thing and just try to keep this plant alive as a plant, never mind bonsai - leave that for another day (year :) when you've done a lot more research beforehand. You can use regular potting soil with ~ 1/4 of it being perlite (bagged) but most of what you'll use is already in the pot now of course. I also strongly suggest you get help from someone who's repotted plants so you'll know what to do with roots as you encounter them and what to do with them as you repot. I'd probably get a slightly wider and shallower (by 1-2") pot and when the job's done, water and let it drain in the sink. Be very sure the new pot has 1-2 good size drain holes in it. Use any standard houseplant fertilizer every two wks according to directions. Put it in a sunny place (windowsill) and enjoy!

Hi, Danielle. Neat pot! Why Petrie? The first thing I thought of was a Petri dish. Some people get confused about the difference between repotting and potting up or just changing pots. Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, now isn't a good time to repot, the reason being that repotting includes root pruning and a change of soil, and doing it now will significantly stress the plant and leave it much weaker than it is now. With winter just around the corner, that wouldn't be advisable. If your pot doesn't have a drain hole, you should temporarily remove the plant and drill one, or change pots. If you need direction on how to drill the hole, I can help with that - not a big deal. After the hole is drilled, you simply let it drain at the sink & then set it on/in a collection saucer. If repotting IS in the plan you have for the plant, the best time to do that is very late spring - like around Father's Day. If you live in the deep south, a week or two earlier wouldn't be unreasonable. I would remove the dead plant. Reason: eventually all the trunks are going to fuse together via a process called inosculation. The dead trunk will force the living trunks to grow around it, which will interfere with the fusing process AND make for some unsightly lumps and bumps. You need a drain hole in the pot for 2 reasons. 1) to allow some of the excess water that is limiting your plant's root function to drain from the pot. A healthy plant isn't possible w/o a healthy root system. 2) So when you water, you're flushing the salts from tap water and fertilizer solutions from the pot. This is important because high salt levels create conditions that limit growth, health, and appearance, all occurring as a result of the plant's reduced ability to absorb water. If you think about how curing salt literally PULLS water from the cells of meat during the curing process, you are envisioning what an excess of salt(s) does to the cells of plants. If you like the rocks on top, there is no reason you can't keep them. They do slow evaporative water loss a little, but there are ways to make the excess water leave the pot w/o you having to nix the rocks. We can talk more about that if you like. In fact, if you're interested in a Basic Overview that will help you avoid all the common issues most new gardeners are forced to deal with at one time or another, just follow the link. Al