I can't tell about the roots -- the Sans plants are so dense I really can't see much soil surface, but I don't see roots in the parts I can see (I didn't dig down though). It seems to have regular Miracle-Gro style potting soil mixed with small bits of pine bark.

The plant doesn't seem to be suffering otherwise, but I don't have the experience with this plant to notice more subtle signs. It remains green, upright, and with no consistent dead spots. The top layer of soil is dry, but not dried out. The bottom layer (when I feel it through the drain holes) feels like it could have been watered a day ago.

I could get a photo tomorrow. I'd prefer to wait until spring to repot because I haven't been able to gather the ingredients for gritty mix yet, but I wouldn't want to lose the plant before I get a chance. Thanks for your help!

You can pull the whole plant out to look at the roots. However, if it is that dense in there and looks good you should be fine leaving it until Spring. Unless kept very warm and bright it will not need much water in the winter anyway.

I think you may be pushing the dowel through the rhizomes.

mar9en: What's the latest? Were you able to help the plant? What size dowel are you using? I've found the wooden skewers mean for grilling cookout work the best. They are about a foot long 1/8" circumference.

I've left it alone to continue drying out for now. The dowels I use are about 1/8" as well, with one end sharpened to go in smoothly. Hopefully I didn't damage too many rhizomes with my last measurement! Though the toughest part to get through was the bottom half/third, which I would think would have less roots than the top layers, especially with all of the perched water down there.

But so much of it was still moist, I've decided not to measure again for quite a while. The plant doesn't seem to be showing any signs of stress, though I'm not well versed in Sans signals... Any other advice is appreciated!