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bltaylor48

Help with my snake plany

10 years ago

I just took this plant out of thev original pot that it has been in for years. I now realize that this has been a mistake to leave it like that. I want to either repot it or separate it into several plants. The roots appear to be very tightly wound together. What should I do. Thanks.

Comments (3)

  • 10 years ago

    I'm probably the least qualified to answer, being new to this genus but maybe someone will jump in to correct me.

    What's important are the rhizomes, which will push out new roots should you lose some in the process. Tease apart the roots so you can see what's up with the rhizomes, where to separate them if you want to divide the plant, etc. If you cut them, I believe you should let them callous over before planting; wrap the roots attached in something moist but not sopping wet so they don't shrivel up and wait a few days til the cut side of the rhizome "heals" or looks dry. The active growing season doesn't start until April or so from my reading, so don't water when you repot it, tap the pot on a table to settle the soil (well draining chunky type). Any leaves that get detached from the rhizome can be propagated in water or 3" slices in soil mix, again after they callous over.

    I just pulled this out of my head - I highly recommend you do some research to check my memory!!!

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Hi Bruce,

    Well some of NextO's comments are correct, some
    aren't.

    Stunning collection NextO, never mind for a newcomer to
    Sans. Would love to know nurseries w/ such varied assortment of less common
    Sans; you have some real beauties there, but I digress ;>)

    Rhizomes, yes or roots, need callousing yes, but pls no
    wrapping or conserving moisture on anything, that'd be conducive to rot, esp.
    during Winter.

    These aren't delicate or fragile plants at all & can be
    pulled apart from roots, rhizomes & it becomes apparent which are the
    divisions if one wishes to separate them for individual potting.

    Here's one I recently handled just that way, found at a
    local BBS, the distortion in the pot indicating a pup underneath struggling to
    come up/out.

    See the pup on the right? Sorry I haven't
    learned how to load pairs of pix at once.

    Working w/ it dry, using your fingers just pry the whole
    thing apart, shaking off its mix as you go.

    Fun to see the visible pup on left & the
    white youngster yet to surface, lower right, who was distorting the pot.

    I have a mini-rake which I use to remove the mix, but I've
    used a fork for the same purpose.

    Opening up the roots.

    None of this harms the plant, the key is it's all bone dry.


    How one decides to pot up is personal preference really IMO,
    it's what one likes.

    This other division & pup needed separate potting since I wanted to put the white pup back under the mix & let it surface at its own pace.

    I didn't think to take pix of the completed pottings, I'll try to get back to those as it's now a couple of months later.

    I could also see separating all yours, cleaning them up
    & potting them up together w/ some space btwn them in a larger pot, if I
    wanted to keep the grouping which could be nice too. You've got good
    options, you could probably pot up both a group & some individuals if you
    wished to keep a few pups aside to share.

    Two key points, try to keep the final pottings at the same depth of mix as before.

    Yes, pls. do not water after potting, wait several days, just banging the pot against the table to settle the plant, as was suggested.

    Lena


  • 10 years ago

    Thank you Lena for the compliment and corrections, I will have to do exactly this very soon as plastic pots are taking new contorted shapes!

    It's called Tarzana Nursery only a couple miles from me. Yes, I'm very fortunate to have found this one - it's a tiny little place with some good source suppliers apparently. The owner doesn't know what the many of the plant species are even, many are NOID. I don't mind, they are healthy and reasonably priced and I'll figure it out later or not. I love them whatever they're called.

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