Some of the soil became the roots and leaves of the plant, but lots of it is still inside the outer layer of roots lining pot. The space inside is mostly soil, with relatively few roots. Break that 'ball' down to free the roots before repotting.

As for the place where socks go, everyone knows there is an inter-dimensional wormhole inside of clothes dryers. Sometimes socks slip through the portal, and end up in another place and time. The tiny black hole at its heart is also connected to the inside of my wife's purse. Things go in there, vanish, and are never seen again, except that sometimes they reappear years later, like alian abductees.

These dangerous black holes are like the Bermuda Triangle, except that the clothes dryer is a spinning cylinder inside of a cube, not just silly lines drawn on a map. It generates a weak gravitation vortex leading to somewhere else. It is an un-named and evil place, taboo forbidding speaking the name of the place for so long now that no one remembers what to call it. The mystery of why these miniature black holes are associated with women, and not men, is as old as our species.

Brad Hiltbrand

hahaha funny! I had to smash a pot to get the plant out the other day.

Hi,
I had a spider plant once that almost no soil in the pot, just tons of roots...
what a great looking plant, what is it, and what does it look like now in its new pot or pots did you divide it?
thanks for posting.....linda

I believe it's a Gasteria, maybe G. negricans? I agree, quite a handsome plant. Would be nice to see it refreshed & in its new pot.

It was labeled as 'x Gasteraloe 'Green Ice', tho I'm not sure that's correct. The roots were really solid throughout, not just on the surface. New home:

{{gwi:474206}}

these miniature black holes are associated with women, and not men

Hmmm...how about Man Caves and hardware stores? ;^)

Hmm, so maybe I was overgeneralizing just a little bit there, but the rest of it is all true, more or less :-]

Hey Hoovb,

I'm a woman w/ the hardware store gene. I'm guessing it's to make up for the fact that unlike many women, I HATE shopping, as in DETEST it, can barely make myself do it even when necessary (meaning clothes shopping, not food).

It may be 'cause I'm the daughter of an engineer, who had both the hardware store & Radio Shack genes, I think I got the double whammy, esp. since while growing up we often did guy stuff together, I was sort of making up for the son he never had, I guess.

My sister has double copies of the hardware store gene. You are Not Alone, pirate_girl.

I'd also much rather go to a hardware store than shop for clothes and such..LOL!

Beautiful plant! It looks good in the new container. :-)

Great plant with great new pot...I think the roots ate all the soil.

I love that plant. Do Gasteria do ok as houseplants or are they strictly outdoor types?

Yeah Hoovb,

Looks very nice in its new home. Don't recognize your mix, is that what's called Turface?

MojaveLove,

These do fine indoors, I grow a couple near my windows indoors. They're not high light plnts, tending to prefer (when outdoors) to grow in some shade or under other, taller plants.

I know what I'll be getting once I allow myself to another treat :)

I drive by a large nursery with a huge greenhouse everyday, chock full of plants. You can see everything from the road. I know they carry lots of cacti and succulents, which is a hard find for around here. I won't let myself go in yet LOL

PS - Turface is used on baseball diamonds. Just think of that tan in the shape of kitty litter and that is basically what it looks like. I use Oil Dry, turface is too hard to get. Plus oil dry is free in my garage lol

I think those are lava rocks though but I could be wrong.

That's just a mulch of "lava" rock. I use 60/40 no-peat cactus mix/pumice. Here it is easy to keep plants dry enough.

We do not have the challenges of cold snowy winters or humid hot summers or insufficient sunlight.

Rare special plants of course need special care here, but even I can grow the common ones, because the climate makes it easy.

Hoovb, your plant is XGasterAloe'Green Ice', which is variable. There are several different forms in cultivation. I have three, all distinctly different. Ann Schein here in CA has been selecting paler and paler forms over the years until her 'Green Ice' is almost uniform in the pale green color with no dark areas. Being chlorophyll deficient, it is slow grower.

Mojave, Gasteria grow best in bright shade outside. Little or no direct sunlight is best. So they can be grown well indoors given lots of light. Many interesting species and hybrids are available in that genus and related Aloe and Haworthia. Small species of Sedum and Crassula may also survive indoors. You will need to be on the lookout for signs of etiolation, thinning and stretching for more light. I'm not saying they will grow to their potential, only that they can tolerate life behind glass better than other succulents.

Brad

Thanks Brad, I have seen so many slightly different I thought it might be variable. Perhaps because of all the darker green areas, mine has been what I thought was fairly fast-growing, it was a single 2 leafed pup in a 4" pot when I got it about 2 years ago. It seems to handle early morning (before 10 am) direct sun without any issues.

The prettiest ones to me are the ones with foliage having a wide pale edge and a dark center speckled with pale. When the coloration is uniform they are very beautiful plants.