Hello Grannymarie :)

At first I thought that my S. Masoniana is on the photo, because it has almost identical damage on the top as mine :))) Mechanical damage does not harm the plant. If your leaf has no roots yet, it can produce roots for a very long time. It lasted for almost a year ... before letting the young leaf go. It lasted almost ... a year before it produced a young leaf. On the first photo - year ago (on the left) and second - last week, with new leaf. Good luck with her :)

Yours are beautiful Ewa321! I just looked over at mine to compare the wounds and am taken aback at what's happening. The top of my whale fin's leaves are curling in??? It wasn't like that when I took her out of the packaging. It's been about five hours since I watered her? The leaf is not flat anymore. At first it just had that little bend on the upper right with the rest of the leaf pretty flat. Now the whole leaf is going concave. :(

Give her some time. If there are no worms, it should be ok. Chang of environment may weaken the condition of the plant but this species is very hardy. Does the leaf have roots?

Here is a suggestion. If you know you are going to repot within a couple of days, don't water in the existing, very rich organic soil. Let the soil stay dry, then remove a lot of it when you remove the plant from the pot, and give it new mix when you repot. If your leaf has roots, it should be all right.

Another suggestion for when you repot: When you water, don't water directly on the leaf extending from the mix. Water around it, maybe in a 1" diameter.

The depth that you repot at will probably be similar to what you have now. You want to remove from that pot and mix, and see what's UNDER the soil. If it has a rhizome and roots, you can plant at just about the same level, maybe 1/4" lower. Good luck with your repotting!

Unfortunately I already watered it yesterday about an hour after I received it since the soil was very dry. This morning i didn't take her out of the pot but loosened the dirt and felt down and I can feel the rhizome and it doesn't pull out so I'm hoping there are roots. As soon as I get the grit today I'll take it out of the pot and examine it.

Well, the grit won't arrive till either tomorrow or Monday. Will it be alright to leave the sans in the pot till then or should i plant it up without the grit which I'd rather not do?

I would take out the leaf from the ground, clean it and look it over.

If he has roots, he will definitely be fine, he only needs some time to acclimatize in new conditions. And if there are no roots, then you can put him in a container with water, and then to the ground. But it's warm now, so even in the water itself it's rooted. I put a few leaves into a glass of water (3 weeks ago) and put on the balcony - the roots are visible on two.

Ok, it looks like a nice root system to me. Very happy about that! So is it ok to keep it bare-root till I can repot it when the grit comes in which will be on Monday if not tomorrow (Friday) ? If yes, should I leave it laying horizontal propped up on the pot like in the photo or should I sit it up in an empty pot?

btw, nice roots on your leaves in only three weeks!

You did well that you checked, it looks great !! I see not only roots but also a regrowth, it promises to be a beautiful plant. It will not happen if you hold it without ground until Monday :)

Ohhh,...then if the grit doesn't come in tomorrow I'll pot it with just the C/S mix and the pumice.

Thanks so much for your help, ewa321, I really appreciate it!

Wow -- you have good roots there. Either pumice or perlite will work, 50/50 or 60/40. I use scoria (small red lava rock) as a top dressing to prevent the ugly look of perlite floating to the top. It still floats, but -- I don't see it. Ha ha! If you can't get scoria, you can top dress with anything. I have also bought lots of polished pebbles at Dollar Tree, a buck a bag. Anyway, GOOD roots.

Thanks Robin. I'm relieved it has a good root system. Will it damage the leaf to leave it laying horizontal or should I stand it up in an empty pot till tomorrow planting?

Never heard of scoria so plan on researching it and seeing if I can get some.

If you have enough Pumice you do not need any other type of grit.

It will be fine laying down for a few days. Some plants become distorted very quickly when laying flat, due to phototropism, but a Sans will be fine

That's good to hear and I have plenty of pumice.

Now that it's been out of that wet soil for a few hours it's already straightening out a lot. It's looking so much better. That sure taught me a lot about the durability of the mighty Sans!

The grit came today so I was able to use it when I repotted the Sans. Planted it off-center to accommodate the new ryzome growing. Not sure if I should have buried the whitish part at the bottom though. Will wait to water it. Thanks everyone for the help!