Golden Pothos Shock After Root Trim and Repot

2 years ago

Please help. I repotted my root bound golden pothos and trimmed off the bottom inch, and it has been a couple of weeks and the plant seems to be getting worse.

Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
i would have propagated short pieces of the long parts .. and then repotted the mother part ...

it seems to be sacrificing the oldest leaves due to the stress ... i presume you used damp media.. and watered it in well.. and have been watering properly???

tell us your whole process ... did you get a larger pot.. or just chop off the bottom of the roots???

ken
Lani Lemenager thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Rebecca/N. IN/z6A
2 years ago
Mine did this last fall after a root prune & repot & lost yellowed leaves randomly until this spring. Fall isnt ideal for a repot as plants are continuing tolose energy until Dec. 21 (winter sostice) but it was an emergency so had to be done. I just watered & feetilized as normal throughout winter & it came out of it in spring & started growing as usual. Nowits back to normal.
Lani Lemenager thanked Rebecca/N. IN/z6A
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Hi all, Kind thanks for all your replies. Here's my very late update: All my cuttings rooted in water after a week or so but I only potted them a couple of weeks after the fact (got busy with other things). Potted them in left over 50% MG (bad I know) 50% perlite. I found it very difficult arranging the vines after they had been growing this way and that over the past several months --had to cut some vines up so they would fit. I also tried NOT to bury a lot of stem deep in the potting medium out of fear for future rot, but found it difficult to keep some of the vines stabilized otherwise. Hope I didn't mess that up too badly. In the end, I was left with one medium sized "plant", one small, one tiny, and a handful of leftover vines to give away to friends. After potting, I watered, and then wrapped them up in those big dry cleaner bags and set aside. None wilted! Hurrah! Two leaves turned yellow but I suppose that's acceptable collateral damage. Overall they seem to be doing well --some new leaves have unfurled at the tips. I've only watered once or twice since they were potted, when the soil feels dry. I hope by next spring I'll see the same level of growth as the mother plant had this year.
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Nice repotting! When trimming you just have to be sure to let the cuts heal a good couple of days or more. I read somewhere a good rule of thumb is one week to every inch thickness cut. If you're afraid to trim the roots, just let it sit shaded for the first week or so for the newly exposed area to adjust. Even then you still want to be careful of sunburn. You can leave the roots as the ones that decide they give up the fight will just dry up and shrivel. They can easily be removed then. The finer roots can help the plant shock if there are still some in the soil to help with it's nourishment intake. It's really what you're comfortable with as these plants are resilient for the most part. I like (and I usually do the same) is leave some of the bigger "fine" roots like Paula did. They do indeed eventually fatten up and add more character. Hope this helps. Kirk
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It's simply showing signs of stress... whenever you repot a plant, it gets stressed a little. It should bounce back just fine within a week. Pothos plants are very resilient. The only "bad" thing you did was water on a set schedule. It's better to water thoroughly when the soil has become mostly dry. This might mean twice a week, or once a month, depending on conditions.
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Lani Lemenager
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I removed the pothos from the pot and sawed off the bottom inch as it was very root bound. I loosened up the root ball with my hands then placed back inside the same pot with a new potting mix. My old potting mix was miracle grow and perlite. I am now using 5 parts pine bark mulch (half sifted to 1/4" and the other half about 1/2" with 1 TBSP garden lime per LB of pine bark), 2 parts MG potting mix, 2 parts perlite. Watered deeply until water was coming through the bottom of the pot. There is some cinnamon sprinkled on top because I have been having issues with my other plants and fungus gnats.

It has been about 1 1/2 weeks, and a large amount of leaves have been lost. I cut back two vines and pulled off the yellow leaves. I have an identical pothos that I have not touched. You can see in the picture that it has 1 yellow leaf close to the base. Both plants had been doing this for a while which is what led me to repotting.

I did this same process with my peace lily due to the soil not drying through. It has been about 3 weeks and my peace lily is completely limp.

Can the vines grow the leaves back on the bare vines or should I just trim back the vines?

1 week after repot and watering

The other identical pothos that has not yet been repotted

Repotted pothos - yellow leaves and two vines removed

Peace lily 3 weeks after repot. The mix has remained wet, this is the same mix i used for the pothos.
HU-829947729
2 years ago
Why would you saw off the roots? That is defintely your problem. You damaged them for no reason. You sent the plants into shock. You are supposed to gently seperate what you can and then repot in a pot that is slightly larger and the roots will adapt themselves. Wishing better luck to your plants that are still alive 😅

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Golden Pothos Shock After Root Trim and Repot

Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Rebecca/N. IN/z6A

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Golden Pothos Shock After Root Trim and Repot

Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Rebecca/N. IN/z6A

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Lani LemenagerOriginal Author

HU-829947729

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Lani Lemenager
Original Author