Does anyone know what this is popping out of the dirt ?

Hi cgh,

That would be a pup (baby) popping up out of the dirt!

I would repot the plant now, into a pot with drainage holes, using a well draining medium like a 50/50 mix of cactus soil and perlite. Sansevieria can be pretty slow growing, and they are pretty tough, so I would just do it now.

When you water, water until you see water coming out the bottom of the pot, then don't water again until your finger, when stuck into the "soil" comes out dry. Do NOT water it immediately after the repot...wait a week or two.

The cracks on the leaves will scar over and will not harm the plant, but they will leave the leaf blemished. Nothing you can do about that until the plant sheds those leaves. You can trim the leaves, but they will only grow taller; they WON'T grow back into the pointed shape they are now.

Sans can take a light range from very bright, indirect light to very shady, although they generally prefer to be somewhere in the middle.

You probably have 5-6 plants in that pot, if not more. When you repot, you can separate them into any number of plants you choose, or keep them together as they are now (my personal preference) for a fuller looking pot. Sans have the nickname of "pot breaker" because they can multiply to the point where they will actually break a pot, even a ceramic one!

That is a nice specimen you've got there....

Nancy

Thanks for the advice. Too bad I did not see this before I went to home depot! I am going to re pot my spider plant as well as the snake. So I ended up buying miracle gro potting mix for the both of them ONLY because I asked one of the plant vendors what to use on both plants. I'm not even sure he really knew. Lol. He showed me a bag with pictures of the snake on it.
I will just take it back to a different home depot, that store was empty.

Do I buy 2 different bags and mix them for the snake? Also does it need to be fertilized?

I have a pot which is metal that someone drilled multiple holes in it. Is that ok for the plant?

How does one repot pup. A lot of questions, I know. Sorry. :D

Nice plant. I'm hooked on sans now. I found one like yours at WM several weeks ago. It's so exciting to see a pup(offset). I still have my black coral in the same pot, it's too big to handle by myself.

You can use the miracle grow soil, just change the ratio to 25/75 soil to perlite. Otherwise, yes, you will need one bag of cactus soil and one of perlite (maybe 2, they aren't the biggest bags and I don't know how big the new pots are). If you can get your hands on some gritty material like pea gravel or chicken grit, throw that into the mix...anything that will help make the soil more airy.

Fertilizer is up to you, but if you do decide to use it, get the liquid stuff, not the sticks/spikes.

Will this plant be kept indoors? I ask because that metal pot will heat up when in the sun and will create an overly warm environment for the roots. Water will eventually rust the pot if it isn't protected, too, something to think about....

A good trick to stop soil from exiting the drainage holes each time you water is to place either a coffee filter or paper towel in the bottom of the pot and then fill the pot as usual. By the time the filter/towel has rotted away, the dirt will have molded to the shape of the pot and you will have very minimal, if any, dirt exiting .

Snake plant pups are actually attached to mama under the soil and your pup is nowhere near ready to be separated yet.

Keep asking questions! That's how we all learn! :)

Nancy

I'm not a fan of Miracle Gro soil, but fortunately someone knowledgeable stated how to amend it so it would be better for your plants. If you do decide to keep that soil, just don't buy the moisture control one they sell. I've seen a number of people (including myself) that have had issues with it being too water retentive.

Planto

Thanks for the advice. I went and bought the cactus soil n perlite. I kept the regular potting soil to use for the spider plants and her babies.

I plan to keep all my plants indoors except the milkweed whenever its warmer.

I'm going to return the metal pot because I do not want that rust factor looming over my head. My home depot does not have much choice on pots though.

I've seen 6 different liquid fertilizer at HD. Which one is best for this plant. I think I have plant lust... lol. Came out of no where. I bought another smaller one...I did not know there were different ones. Which one is this? The associate's did not know what kind it was.

Cactus/succulent fertilizer is what you're looking for. As for who your new plant is? A Sansevieria trifasciata of some sort, there are quite a few varieties. As for snake plants in general? There are hundreds!

Hi,

Sometimes it's best to keep things simple. If it's a newly purchased plant, I'd give it 6 months before doing anything w/ fertilizer. As to that, simplicity too is best, any balanced fertilizer, (w/ same numbers like 20-20-20). More important to get that is has good, well draining mix. The mix it's in looks kind of peaty.

Nice looking plant!

Thanks for the advice! I seen a few different snake plants today when I went back to HD. I think I need to stay out of there lol.

what does 20-20-20 mean? Im so lost when it comes to this stuff lol..I bought some cacti and succulent fertizlier for my cactus, however I have not used it.

Is peaty looking a bad or good thing?

I have never heard of this being called a snake plant.

Mother-in-law Tongue plant or Father-In-Law Tongue plant. The difference being one is all green and the other has a yellow stripe along the edge of each leaf. It also grows like crazy and easily gets out of hand.

Your 2nd plant looks to be a black robusta, if so, it's an intermediate height Sans. On this nursery website, scroll down, they call it Robusta Black, Morning Dew - and you can also see different types of Sansevieria in production/commerce. Sansevieria are light feeders - I'm using Dyna Grow Foliage Pro 9-3-6 (the numbers stand for quantity or proportion of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium. What the numbers mean. I seem to remember reading feeding them 3 times during their growing season at half strength i.e. when temperatures warm up in Spring to Autumn - depends on where you live I suppose. The growers often put time-release fertilizer in the soil medium so pirate-girl makes a good point of doing nothing for about 6 months. They seem to always come home in a peaty mix (must be cheap) - but they grow well (and less likely to rot) in a very chunky, gritty soil medium - mini-bark, grit (not sand), pumice, coarse perlite. Think of them as succulents from harsh climates (Africa, Arabia) grow them lean and dry. Congrats!

You say you are going to keep them indoors, which is fine, but they still need sunlight. They should be placed right on a windowsill. Outside, they prefer shade, but that's different than shade inside the house.