question about repotting ZZ plants
Sans2014
9 years ago
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Comments (23)
pirate_girl
9 years agopatchyjack
9 years agoRelated Discussions
ZZ plant repotting
Comments (18)Thanks everyone! What is C& S soil please? I looked at the ingredients of my soil mix and it said bark (pine I think), two kinds of peat and dolomite. I chose it because it was quick draining but I confess I haven't paid much attention to soil in the past, using Miracle Grow potting soil for most potted plants indoors and out. I've had pretty good luck, though I try to stick with easy to grow plants indoors. The ZZ Is my favorite and I've had great lluck with the two I just potted up. So far no repercussions from what I did and I had to saw around the pots to detach the roots. I thought I was going to have to break the pot, then read about using water to loosen them and it worked. Because they roots were such a tangled mass, I washed the dirt from the bottom and outer ones. I did the same thing on a slightly smaller one, which is also doing fine so far. I considered trimming some of the roots but was afraid ... Later I read the lengthy article here that said root pruning was healthier than just potting up! I am so uncertain but prob should leave well enough alone and just tolerate my huge pot .......See MoreQuestion about repotting store bought plants
Comments (3)Sharon, Here's a couple of links you may find helpful. An African Violet needs a pot just big enough for its root system. You could run into problems if you pot in a container that is too large. In my growing conditions, I've found that 4 inch pots are plenty big enough for standard size violets. The baby on the side of your rescue plant is a sucker. If you don't remove it, it will cause the plant to become deformed. I usually use a hobby knife (such as x-acto) with a clean blade to remove the sucker. The sucker can be rooted and will produce a new plant quicker that propagating from a leaf. Good luck, Tim http://www.rachelsreflections.org/ http://www.violetbarn.com/faq/faq.html Here is a link that might be useful: Rachel's Reflections...See Morehow do i know when to repot my zz plant
Comments (11)Thanks for the help. The photo is from my phone camera, so it is not the best. But you can clearly see the lighter, brighter green new leaves (third rhizome from the right) which unfurled from their sheath just in the past 48 hours!!! No kidding. Before that, it looked like the "sheathed" growth of an unopened rubber-tree plant leaf. This is in addition to the other new shoots that have appeared since I got the plant on May 11. This rapid growth ASTONISHED me, as on-line research kept referring to ZZ plants as "very slow growers." (I am joking with my friends that my ZZ plant somehow aspires to be an oak tree, or that atheletes must be sneaking into my home when I am at work and dumping performance enhancing drugs into its pot. LOL.) I watered it on the 18th and watered it again last night, June 1, and am sticking with watering every 2 weeks Should I water more often? The current pot is about 10 inches across. Last night I purchased one that is about twice that size (the largest one I could find with drainage holes) and will re-pot the plant tonight....See MoreDoes this ZZ plant need repotting? Or something else?
Comments (9)ZZ plants have tuberous roots (potatoes are tubers) that need a lot of space and the more airy the soil, the less risk there is that they will rot. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/ZZ_Plant_%28Zamioculcas_zamiifolia%29_roots.jpg Someday I hope the myth of "this plant likes to be rootbound" or "tight shoes" or whatever the phrasing, will die. No plant likes to be rootbound. What is necessary for plants to stay alive is for their roots to not rot, which can happen so easily in a pot with dense soils, like ground dirt, or bagged mixes of predominantly tiny particles of peat, (or to simply shrivel from simply never getting any water.) Having very little soil around the roots would make the soil dry more quickly, and for even the most dedicated plant-overwaterers to not rot the roots of their plants. This is not ideal, since most non-cactus plants are stressed by dry conditions, it's just a way of coping with soil that has little air in it when moist. Negative experiences in regard to potting-up, where an undisturbed root ball is placed into a bigger pot with more soil around it, vs. doing a repotting, as described below, can give rise to old wives' tales about plants not liking to be repotted/disturbed. Potting-up a root-bound plant that has roots surrounding the outside root ball often lead to this negative experience because those roots had adapted to accessing oxygen around the outside of the root ball and surrounding them with more dense, soggy-but-airless potting soil will likely lead to suffocation. The reason bonsai masters are able to keep potted entities alive for hundreds of years is because they care for the roots by trimming them and changing the soil. A plant grows from the roots-up, so if the roots are not healthy, gorgeous foliage will decline &/or no flowers can form. When you unpot a plant and find a pancake of roots at the bottom, chopping that off will give roots a chance to grow normally again for a while and will make removing the old soil easier. Roots need oxygen & moisture at the same time to function. Just air = shriveling. Just moisture = suffocation & rotting. Either will cause root death and dessicated foliage because the roots have been unable to deliver moisture. Having to let soil dry, as if ones' tropical jungle plant was a cactus, is an unnecessarily stressful coping mechanism for non-desert dwelling plants in soil without enough oxygen for the roots to stay healthy when it is moist and can lead to premature loss of older leaves and in extreme cases, dry shriveled roots/dead plant. The ability of roots to be able to function properly depends greatly on the soil structure/texture, which can change over time. Potting soil tends to be very dense, mostly peat, with very little air in it. Any kind of organic ingredients decompose into smaller bits over time, and roots fill air spaces over time as they grow through soil. Replacing soil periodically is usually necessary to keep plants healthy because of these reasons. A more porous, chunky, airy soil (like cactus/palm, if one is buying bagged,) can have more air in it even when it is moist because there is space between the particles. When there are tiny particles of any kind in a pot, such as peat, sand, silt, clay, they filter into all of the tiny spaces in a pot, eliminating the air. "Overwatering" is the label and manifestation when roots have suffocated and/or rotted, combo of both. Over time, organic bits decompose into smaller bits, so even the "best" soil, if it has organic components, will need to be replaced when this happens. The speed at which this happens depends on many variables, but on average, about 1-3 years....See Morepirate_girl
9 years agopatchyjack
9 years agoSans2014
9 years agoSans2014
9 years agopatchyjack
9 years agopirate_girl
9 years agopetrushka (7b)
9 years agopatchyjack
9 years agopetrushka (7b)
9 years agoSans2014
9 years agopatchyjack
9 years agopetrushka (7b)
9 years agopatchyjack
9 years agoSans2014
9 years agopetrushka (7b)
9 years agopirate_girl
9 years agopirate_girl
9 years agopetrushka (7b)
9 years agoSans2014
9 years agoSans2014
8 years ago
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petrushka (7b)