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plant repotting reportback
start: one (1) corkscrew rush, very rootbound. one (1) pot of aloe plants, similarly overpacked.
first thing, the corkscrew rush ended up being more rootbound than i had anticipated. not only was there a mat extending out of the drainage holes, the interior roots were all curled around the rim of the pot several times over, with one super tightly-packed strand that had managed to curl into what was basically a coil of string that just peeled apart and, when fully unraveled, was longer than my outstretched arm. keep in mind this was from a pot that was like, six inches wide, six inches deep
so i ended up grabbing one of my housemate's unused plastic pots (12'' wide, 12'' deep) and dumping it in there, which will hopefully be good enough for a while. apparently corkscrew rushes are hardy enough to overwinter outside here, but given it's current state i'll probably bring it in once it gets around to frosting.
so that brings us to the aloe. the aloe was in this fancy stone pot with a built-in drainage tray, and also about 6'' by 6''. the thing with this pot is it had a narrow lip -- not a lot narrower, but there was a definite inward turn at the top of it. which was a problem, since the soil had sunk down and there were aloe rhizomes pushing out along all the edges. initially i was concerned with the jostling of getting the plants out tearing out the plant body and leaving the roots, but uh i quickly realized that most of the offshoots had a single rhizome root, that was already disconnected, and basically no further root system. so, yikes.
(now probably wasn't the best time to repot them, since it's right around the end of their growing season, but uh given that they were all packed together i can't imagine repotting them would be WORSE than letting them stay in that pot for another six months.)
anyway so now i have: somewhere between nine and twelve aloe plants. nine separate pots, though some of the plants are doubled-up since i ran out of pots to use. i'm not 100% if they'll all survive, but they all have some growth and some roots, so you know, hopefully.
also due to the pressures of the pot they were in, all but the biggest ones are completely flat. like, aloe plants usually send out spiky growths in all directions, but for these they're all squashed out to the left or right. hopefully as they get used to their new, less-packed confines they'll get a bit spreadier.
first thing, the corkscrew rush ended up being more rootbound than i had anticipated. not only was there a mat extending out of the drainage holes, the interior roots were all curled around the rim of the pot several times over, with one super tightly-packed strand that had managed to curl into what was basically a coil of string that just peeled apart and, when fully unraveled, was longer than my outstretched arm. keep in mind this was from a pot that was like, six inches wide, six inches deep
so i ended up grabbing one of my housemate's unused plastic pots (12'' wide, 12'' deep) and dumping it in there, which will hopefully be good enough for a while. apparently corkscrew rushes are hardy enough to overwinter outside here, but given it's current state i'll probably bring it in once it gets around to frosting.
so that brings us to the aloe. the aloe was in this fancy stone pot with a built-in drainage tray, and also about 6'' by 6''. the thing with this pot is it had a narrow lip -- not a lot narrower, but there was a definite inward turn at the top of it. which was a problem, since the soil had sunk down and there were aloe rhizomes pushing out along all the edges. initially i was concerned with the jostling of getting the plants out tearing out the plant body and leaving the roots, but uh i quickly realized that most of the offshoots had a single rhizome root, that was already disconnected, and basically no further root system. so, yikes.
(now probably wasn't the best time to repot them, since it's right around the end of their growing season, but uh given that they were all packed together i can't imagine repotting them would be WORSE than letting them stay in that pot for another six months.)
anyway so now i have: somewhere between nine and twelve aloe plants. nine separate pots, though some of the plants are doubled-up since i ran out of pots to use. i'm not 100% if they'll all survive, but they all have some growth and some roots, so you know, hopefully.
also due to the pressures of the pot they were in, all but the biggest ones are completely flat. like, aloe plants usually send out spiky growths in all directions, but for these they're all squashed out to the left or right. hopefully as they get used to their new, less-packed confines they'll get a bit spreadier.
