1. You are probably OK to repot with new soil, but remember Hahnii especially do not like wet feet.

2. Try to put your plant in some sunlight and stop watering. It is impossible to know what "pretty damp" means :-)

Thank you michaela, It's about 2 feet from a western exposed window, but I can probably get it a southern exposure.

The hahnii that had the most dead leaves had almost no roots at all. I didn't have a pot so I took the old dirt out and filled it with new.

Remember, a plant with no roots cannot take in water. So if it sits in damp /wet soil, it can only rot. Coldness aggravates the condition even more. Do not be so concerned about watering your Sansevierias. The rhizome stores food and water for the plant. If you have a healthy rhizome, with a minimun of water your plant will sprout new roots and flourish. Keep them in as much sun as you can through the winter, or give them artificial florescent light, and try to avoid water spots on the leaves.

Are you watering in when you repot? Succulents do not want this (watering in when repotting like one would w/ a houseplant). How else could you're plant still be wet after repotting?

What kind of mix are you using? Sans. are succulents (I know I defined succulents for you on another post as plants that are naturally water retentive).

With that reminder, I caution you abt whatever mix you've mentioned above that 'won't dry out too soon'. You're confused or mistaken here abt the desireable conditions for these plants. They WANT to dry out soon, one wants the fastest possible drainage to pull water AWAY from the base of the plant & its roots where it would be most vulnerable to rot.

Next time, if you have a potbound Sans. just leave it alone as is. They like that, you could wait 'til Spring, pot it up only a LITTLE bit larger & wait to water until you see new growth.

Sans. Hahniis are especially sensitive to overwatering; having killed 3 or 4 over the yrs. due to bad watering practice, I've stopped growing them altogether. (I've been growing Sans. at least 10 yrs. & gave a talk on them to my local plant society 2 yrs. ago).

I very rarely lose these plants, but it can happen, esp. from overwatering, sometimes all it takes is once.

I have a no ID baseball type Sans. that I just caught yesterday as somewhat overwatered, its largest leaf was softening. I pulled it out of the mix entirely, have left it out bare to dry, I'll repot it in a wk or 2.

It does these plants no harm at all to stand up in an empty clay pot w/ no mix. I've had some out like this for several months at a time.

Perhaps it's time for you to do some searching & reading here on sans. care & culture, 'cause you're really not seeming to understand the different watering (from houseplants) that succulents require. (Some folks only water their Sans. once a month in winter if that & their plants are fine).

It is ALWAYS safest to go by the following: When in doubt abt watering (succulents) don't. They can survive underwatering far better than overwatering (which is the quickest & most surefire way to kill succulents).

I don't mean to be mean here, but you seem to be repeating the same (too much water) mistake w/ several kinds of succulents, not just Sans.

Thank you, I am trying to learn.

I have been watering the sans etc. as I repot them. I will stop doing this.

I do understand that succulents are naturally water retentive.

I used a 'succulent and cacti' commercial soil mix, which apparently isn't good for succulents and cacti.

I usually don't water my sans. or other succulents more than once a month, with the exception of the one aloe-type plant in another thread, which I'm discovering was a mistake.

I find varying advice on this and other internet venues. I try to make the best decisions I can.

I read conflicting advice all the time too. Try not to stress over it though. Since everyone's environmental conditions and growing mediums aren't the same, there's still a lot of trial and error involved. After about a year (I'm almost 3 years into plant growing at this point), I began to understand a lot better about how to tell when my plants want to be watered. I lost some along that way. Everyone does. I'm still learning. I imagine I'll be learning for many, many years.

You've probably seen a lot of posts that say, "When in doubt, don't water.". That is excellent advice.

I've been learning for the past 30+ years well to be honest at least 50 years, and still I'm learning, Always know where your plant came from desert, bushland, heavey soil, rocks, red soil, clay, desert sand, rocky hills in quarts rock? Lime stone soil, quartzite, granite. This will give you the clues you will need, I live in a hot dry area, no humidity to speak of. I grow mine in the same conditions that they had in Africa, Ceylon, Kena, Tarzania, etc. the softer the leaves the more water they will need. The more variegation the more sun. Always check the tips of the leaves if hard , well it won't need as much water as the rest.
Cuttings, well wait two week before planting, if they have roots they can take water just like any other plant, or the roots will dry out. San. leaves are starting to wrinkle, it will need moisture. Don't let this species stay wet they will rot at the base of the soil line. The will grow very well for you in the summer months along the eastern coast. They love humidity. Most live in bushland so a nurse plant if helpful or part shade
They don't live in peat moss, so the plants don't know what it is at all. The animals eat Sans. , in my case the squirells, or mice, I don't have elephants here. They are a source of water for the wild goats, sheept and grazing animals, they eat rhyizoms and the leaves, there are about 80 species at this time. More are being found every year. The Huntington Gardens will be offering a large collection of them for sale in the Spring, Shipping is not safe now, due to weather conditions. Norma

Hi Blutarski,

We all make mistakes, it's part of the learning curve, happens to everybody, whether they admit it or not.

An early mistake I made was to grow Xmas Cactus in C&S mix (seemed logical, it's a cactus). I learned over time it was the wrong mix, too heavy for those plants & have since learned mine do much better in AV mix w/ added perlite (it's lighter & fluffier & these plants don't make big roots).

Our friend Norma above posts lots of really good, useful info. She really knows her plants & shares lots of info. I find sometimes I'll read her comments several times & cull more info from each reading.

She was very helpful to me helping me research for my Sans. talk 2 yrs. ago, I'd have had a much tougher time w/out her help & knowledge.

I find it difficult sometimes to learn exactly where my plant was native to, can't always find that info.

There's a lot to learn & it takes time, patience, lots of plant growing & plant care experimentation (& the loss of a few plants from time to time).

One thing few folks explain is that it takes time & experimentation to learn what will & will not grow in one's own particular environment.

Example: I can't grow Jades here in NYC. Don't know why, I just can't, have failed enough times to quit them. Also Orchids, very difficult for me, I'm on the top floor of 6, have western exposures & no AC, it gets well into the 90s in summer here. Orchids needs cooler nights to help them in blooming & cooler nights in summer is something I just can't provide. So I've learned not to try that (anymore).

W/ my west windows & hot aptmt, I do very well w/ succulents: Haworthias, Gasterias, Kalanchoes, Sans., Euphorbias & Hoyas, lots of Hoyas.

I can't grow Ferns or AVs, they just don't find it to their liking here.

As to mixes, there are as many opinions on this as there are growers themselves!!! Yes, it's frustrating.

But, the short version of why C&S mix is not actually so great for C&S: some mix distributors use peat & some a lot of peat, which brings particular problems w/ re-wetting & resultant either drowning or suffocating the roots. Also, lately I hear some mix folks are adding water retention crystals to their mix (not desireable for succulents).

A good safety measure for Sans. & most succulents is to grow them in unglazed terra cotta pots rather than plastic. It can help counteract tendencies to overwater. Also, the clay being porous, allows for some air movement & helps wick away moisture somewhat from the plants.

Folks often recommend learning the feel of the weight of our pots, before & after you water. That will begin to make sense to you after a while & you'll be confident abt its watering when you just lift up the pot & feel how heavy (or light) it feels.

Sorry to be so long, but lots of info..............

(Hugs, Norma, Happy, Planty New Year to...

So, I've taken the sans that's had wet feet for about a week out of it's pot and it's drying for the next day or two. There were some spots at the soil line that were brown, like celery that's been in the fridge too long. I scraped off the diseased parts.

There was also seemed to be some new root growth as well at the tips.

After new year's, I'll get some perlite, mix up some new mix, and replant it DRY.

I kept the soil, I'm assuming I can reuse it if it dries out in time.

repotted the plant today in roughly 60-40 mix of CS potting soil and perlite.

I PROMISE not to water it until i have my 'sans watering day' on the 26th, unless it starts wrinkling.

There's a lot of good advice on this thread; I'll add one more thing which I don't think anyone's said yet. Sometimes Sans. when you buy them are in old potting soil which can be compacted and miserable; and sometimes the plants can have rot on the roots. I've learned when I buy Sans. to check the compost, and it it's old and impermeable to clean it off and check the roots for rot. I've bought both an agave and a Hahnii that had rot on the plant below the surface, and they didn't grow until I cleaned them up and repotted them in fresh medium.
By the way, I use a peat-based potting soil with generous added sand and expanded clay pellets, and fertilize with a slow-release fertilizer for succulents; this is not probably an ideal mix, but the Sansevierias live and, generally, grow in it. The point is that I made it up out of readily available ingredients. I agree about unglazed clay pots, in which I keep all my Sans.

Melissa

Hi Karen, Pirate Girl, New York. Perfect advise up above. I'm glad your program went off well. If you need to now where a plant came from Google it, it will tell you, I did that the other night because JT didn't believe me. We will still have more discussion on this plant. Because I know what it is he does not, he had never seen it before, but he will check it out and report back to me if I was correct. I will look it up for you, it is important, that is why we need to know the name in order to find out where it came from to grow it correctly. Good going Karen, Happy New Year to you. Norma

Thanks Norma, winking attcha from here.

Can I digress enough to tell you I'm currently trying to grow 2 variegated Jades & I have 2 cuttings of solid green that I'm going to try just ONE more time ... sigh!

Karen, perhaps a helpful hint, Crassula need cool nights. They mostly live in a fog belt area, so get moisture at night. It is when they grow the pores open up and take in the moisture. Hope this helps, no snow, but will take rather cold tempts. Norma