Thanks for the info and ID. Now that I look closely, I notice that the sections with the aerial roots are the sections with the longest trunk parts. That's fascinating that the plant knows it needs extra support as the trunk forms.

I thought that was just where old leaves have come off. So if it is a real "trunk", then I would not bury it in the soil when repotting, right? Keep the soil at the same level? I know with African VIolets as the "neck" develops, it is okay to replant and cover the neck.

Yes, it probably is time for a new lightweight pot. Maybe I will put 3 sections back in the new pot for the long term and use some divisions to put outside again in the nice weather and/or give to friends.

So is the plant generally tough? Can I treat the rootball with tough love (if needed)? Anything that has been in the same pot that long might put up a fight :-)

I realize it has been a long time since this post. My search for a solution led me here. How did your repotted plant do? We have a massive one that needs repotting.

It sure has been a long time! I've repotted and divided several times. One time I took the main trunk and buried it halfway, but it still looked off to me and still grew too big too quickly. Mostly now I take offshoots with no trunk and start new plants and give extra to friends. They fill in pretty quickly. I find overall the plant is tough and can take whatever I throw at it. Fortunately, it likes the room it is in. The light is bright. Southwest window about 6' away from direct sun.

My current plant is in a 9" pot for the past 2-3 years. I am holding off on repotting because the bigger the pot the bigger the plant. It's not complaining yet. I tuck the aerial roots inside the top of the pot.

fwiw, it's been reclassified as a Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum

https://www.house-plant-hobbyist.com/blog/2019/5/20/thaumatophyllum

I see the gardenweb pictures were lost. Here are some new ones:

Current:

(sorry, it's vertical on my computer)

This is same plant right after divided in 2020:

This is where it came from in 2016. Taking up a bit too much of the room. Closer to the window it grew much faster.

I think I reduced the size somewhat in 2016. In 2020 I was more drastic:

I was shocked how many roots got out of the bottom holes. They were hidden by the tray it was sitting in.

came out of that with 2 babies:

Show us your pictures.

really.. 14 years later. the OP shows back up.. and post a picture tutorial..

whats that all about.. lol .. i just checked in to suggest the odds would be low.. that OP would reply 14 years later ... lol

ken

OP = original poster .... not andy's boy

even though I was sad to see gardenweb sold and I disliked Houzz replacement for a long time, gotta hand it to them for preserving the threads and the notifications!!

Holy socks! What a success you've had!!!

First--Thank you so much for replying to my post and question. Your plant, 14 years ago, is exactly like what we are dealing with, though you had a lot more foliage than we do. Our plant sits in the corner of a "greenhouse" attached to our house--not a traditional greenhouse, though, more like a solarium but that sounds much more posh than what we have. It does have lots of windows on one side and two skylights. The "stalk" of the plant keeps creeping sideways and we've tried turning it--to no avail. I've found out it is just a creeping type.

The link you included is super helpful. I see that what I found online about the creeping nature may not be exact. Looks like that stalk could go relatively straight up given best environment. I don't think we have sufficient 360° lighting.

Your success in repotting gives me so much encouragement to proceed! We've had this plant for over 30 years; it has moved with us at least five times--across three or four state lines. We can't remember when we acquired the plant, it's been so long. We've been lax in repotting it in the last 10-15 years, as it always seemed happy--well, overly crowded for the last 5 years. But now it is just leaning too far out of the pot. I doubt there's adaquate soil in the pot for the roots to thrive. [I planted spider plants in it this pot to give a bit of color around the base. BAD idea; now I know. Those spider tubers fill up the pot, using all the root space.] I have some questions about your process which I'll save for the end of this post, so you can find them easily, if you have time to reply.

I've found two suggestions online eslewhere. One is to repot it into an horizaontal/rectangular pot toward one end so it can be happy creepy and sending roots down as it creeps across. The stalk is at least 3" diameter at this point and over a foot long, with many air roots or whatever they are. We have a rectangular recycling big that we no longer use and that may be the new pot, but I fear it is too large and dampness could be problem. The second suggestions is to put another pot next to the plant and let the stalk grow and creep toward the 2nd pot, rooting as it moves in. Once it's established in the new pot, the stalk is severed so that the "baby" shoots are left behind in the old pot and the creeping stalk starts anew in the other pot. We have a large pot we could use for this purpose (and perhaps the recycle bin could work, as well). The problem with #2 solution is having enough space to allow this progressive growth to take place. Plus, your statement "the bigger the pot, the bigger the plant" serves as good advise for us moving forward. Pretty soon it'll need it's own room!

My questions:

1. I'm not sure what you mean by "Mostly now I take offshoots with no trunk..." Ours has some "knees," I'll call them that have popped up and baby leaves shoot up there. I that an offshoot?

2. When you repotted it the first time, you planted the whole trunk, half way, and that worked. Did you cut it off or section it in anyway?

3. And related to #3 did it begin leaning or creeping again after you repotted it?

4. What are your thoughts on the two suggestions I found on line?

Your photos are great and very helpful. Thank you for including those. We live in Missouri, and we could put the plant outside spring thru autumn but it's too heavy to move, so we don't. We can't plant it outside in the garden because we do get a solid winter. Now, as winter approaches we are trying to get it repotted so we can work in what's left of the warm weather outside because I think this is going to get messy. And all the other plants are coming into the greenhouse for the winter so this guy has got to take up less space rather than more.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I'm just so excited to have someone who has experience with this give guidance. And I am so grateful for your reply.

And I welcome advise from anyone else reading this (Ken_Adrian :-) in case you have any ideas for our Philodendron bipinnatifidum future.

Best regards,

--deborah

Deborah, I'm a little confused on what you are trying to accomplish. My goal was to DISCARD the main plant (with trunk) and ONLY save the babies (offshoots). Are these offshoots what you call creeping? They are perfect for making young divisions. It will have its own root system which will separate from the mother plant. I've never experienced leaning.

The attempt I made to bury the trunk halfway in a bigger pot was not successful aesthetically. It grew, but it was not a good rejuvenation technique. I vaguely recall thinking about cutting the "trunk" to see if it would re-root flush with the soil, but I don't think I did that. Didn't seem to make sense that the lack of roots while trying to regenerate roots, could possibly support all the beautiful top growth. Those aerial roots were interesting to consider too, but didn't seem worth it to me. I wanted to downsize.

After 30 years, your plant has run it's course and needs to redefine itself! I can't remember when I first acquired mine. I'm guessing close to 20. The first few summers it went out in the patio, but it was in a ceramic pot and got too heavy. Now it stays indoors and I use plastic or resin pots.

Friend of mine moved to Florida and found this in her front yard and asked me what it was! These things grow like weeds down there. She had it removed.

Wow! outside in the right climate they do grow like weeds😂 To clarify, i think the offshoots on mine look like they come up like the knees on a cypress. Leaves on stems sprout out of the knees. We are going to separate those, as you did, and plant in smaller pots. Since we have an empty tall pot we will plant the trunk with its roots and leaves in there—just to see what happens.

Thank you for clarifying how your trunk planting went. Photos here show how massive the roots are.

I would not have tried separating the offshoots but we will do that since yours had success

On the top of that first picture, it looks like many little offshoots with no roots. Is that so?

I don't see any offshoots like mine with roots. Are there others off camera?

I think in those other photos we had separated them already. In these you might be able to see what look like little pinacles or knees which have stems/leaves growing. Most of that green you see at base are the spider plants—ugh such a bad idea to have planted in the pot. Look for the nobby towers in the photos and that is what I would call off shoots.

Ah yes. I forgot about the spider plants. That's what I was seeing.

Its hard to tell just what you have, but try different things and I'm sure something will work.

It might be worth an experiment to see if you can cut a trunk shorter and still have some lateral roots that will take.

Curious also if a leaf cutting will root in water. I don't think they have nodes.

Please report back. And good luck.

Hoping to get opinions on whether I should separate the 3 plants in the above picture. The center one is not growing at all. I worry about how closely they are to one another. Branches are 3' but not bushy as others I've seen. Have growing under a grow light since my natural light is nonexistent. Maybe someone will see this and reply. I enjoyed this thread.