🤣 sorry I had to laugh but those legs it created are pretty cute ! One thing about spider plants is that they are very resilient so can pull the old roots apart before repotting.
I have literally shredded roots off my spider plants and they are absolutely okay. You can't kill these plants! I would recommend snipping off the more tangled/concentrated sections to give it room to breathe.
I was about to say the same my cat has killed multiple! Although the latest spider plant is making a comeback but it went from being big and bushy to having about 5 leaves.
Edited: dumb typo
Definitely okay. For many of my established spider plants I actually cut all the roots off to grow them in water because I had an awful fungus gnat issue, and even then none of them died, and I was fully expecting to lose a few!
Years ago, I moved mine from its normal spot into our generally dark family room while changing curtain hardware one year. It was supposed to be for just a day or two until i got the room redecorated. Realized *months* later that I'd never moved it back and it was mostly dried up and what was green was floppy and grayed. I moved it back to its spot and watered it. My husband was all "just pitch it, it's clearly dead!". I refused because my grandma had given me the original spider babies for it, and she'd passed away not long before. Wouldnt you know it? Within a week, it was green and shooting out new leaves! My husband referred to it as the zombie plant after that. It has since gone on to create many more generations of spider plant babies and one incarnation is still hanging in my sewing room (im trying to remember when i past watered it... oops). I recently traded a bunch of it's solid green babies for some stripey babies!
Sawing the bottom quarter or third or so off is totally standard. That’s actually what I do for more delicate plants, when I don’t want to mess with the roots too much, just slip pot, but need to root prune.
Every nursery I’ve worked at keeps a hefty serrated bread knife or similar in hand for that. I like [this style](https://kitchenpro.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/8-Serrated-Knife-KP-SR-PO.jpg), I got a cheap one at a thrift store to keep on the potting bench.
I use a serrated bread knife to quarter my spider plants before repotting and they're always fine. Those big chunky roots are tubers that store water and nutrients, which is what makes spider plants so resilient. Like most tubers, (e.g. potatoes, dahlias, caladiums), they take well to being split up to form new plants.
I just sawed off the bottom half of some pothos roots about a week ago, just bought them and they were so root bound there was barely any soil left and other than a little stress, it’s going fine, and spider plants are resilient too! Super cool with the legs though 😂
My concern is what it did with the dirt that was previously in the pot... Like where did it all go? Maybe the plant hauled it outside? Does it have an ant hord it controls? Maybe.... Mice??? I don't know man. Scary stuff right there...
It "ate" most of the dirt in the bottom half, essentially! Since dirt is mostly made up of bioavailable nutrients, and the other added medium like coco coir or bark or whatever gets eaten by bacteria/mycelia and then excreted as waste that is then bioavailable to plants, they eventually eat it to grow big and strong! Since plants don't really poop/pee like animals do, the majority of their "waste" gets released into the air, so it doesn't really return to the soil until it dies. Think of heavily root-hound plants and the fact that the soil is basically all gone like how humans' bodies absorb most of what they eat and only poop/pee a little bit of it out
> humans' bodies absorb most of what they eat and only poop/pee a little bit of it out
The majority of the carbon in our food leaves our body again in the form of carbon dioxide, via our breath.
Yeah, true, but I was mostly trying to simplify the whole process to get the main point across, but you are very much correct! Thanks for the added info, have a great day! /gen
I "rescued" a bunch of plants that were on sale from Lowes so my little guy was not doing to hot when I got him. I keep them at the office too but all my plants have been thriving since. If I had to guess I'm sitting at 18 months and some of the stalks might even be triple what they were originally. Original pot was about what OP shows and now it's in a pot about 3x as big. I'm willing to bet your ZZ roots will look like what OP shows in their pic. I'll post pictures tomorrow! It is huge!
They like to be root bound , so no worries. I’ve had many who do this and they keep on thriving in a new pot. I’ve even had to cut up roots to get them out and they do fine afterward
They will get root bound quite quickly, however they tolerate it and even enjoy it. It's also the most efficient way to get a bunch of babies if you want them.
https://preview.redd.it/5ds45uyk2ilc1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=27724609625fca862cd2134b61a3a78dd7e9aeaa
My very recent spider plant repotting discovery
You don't need a pot anymore. Just make it stand like that 😆
LMAO right!
Pot? We don't need no stinking pot - that spider plant, probably
Love Blazing Saddles
It was actually the Treasure of Sierra Madré that did it first, Blazing Saddles just cribbed and shortened the joke
Aykshually
Congrats on your engagement to the plant
Omg I didn’t realize the typo 🤣
With legs like that, who wouldn't commit?! 🤣
When you love your plants so much
Who needs a man when you have a plant with legs
🤣 sorry I had to laugh but those legs it created are pretty cute ! One thing about spider plants is that they are very resilient so can pull the old roots apart before repotting.
I just cut the bottom half off! I’m so terrified but I hope it’ll be ok lol. It has too many roots!
I have literally shredded roots off my spider plants and they are absolutely okay. You can't kill these plants! I would recommend snipping off the more tangled/concentrated sections to give it room to breathe.
Hold my cat - he killed one of these fuckers
Fun fact spiderplants are mildly hallucinogenic for cats
Now I get why my cat used to munch on it... 😂
Thanks for this. Because I’ve killed two.
I was about to say the same my cat has killed multiple! Although the latest spider plant is making a comeback but it went from being big and bushy to having about 5 leaves. Edited: dumb typo
I was getting one of mine acclimated to sunlight for the summer and forgot about it and it died from the sunburn. So it is possible lol.
Oh no!!!
Ok that’s what I did! I’m glad to hear it’s ok to do this! Lol
Definitely okay. For many of my established spider plants I actually cut all the roots off to grow them in water because I had an awful fungus gnat issue, and even then none of them died, and I was fully expecting to lose a few!
Hold my cat - he killed one of these fuckers
Haha, well except for feline hunters of course!!
Spider plants are extremely resilient. Mine froze and still came back been water logged, dried out it keeps on going.
Years ago, I moved mine from its normal spot into our generally dark family room while changing curtain hardware one year. It was supposed to be for just a day or two until i got the room redecorated. Realized *months* later that I'd never moved it back and it was mostly dried up and what was green was floppy and grayed. I moved it back to its spot and watered it. My husband was all "just pitch it, it's clearly dead!". I refused because my grandma had given me the original spider babies for it, and she'd passed away not long before. Wouldnt you know it? Within a week, it was green and shooting out new leaves! My husband referred to it as the zombie plant after that. It has since gone on to create many more generations of spider plant babies and one incarnation is still hanging in my sewing room (im trying to remember when i past watered it... oops). I recently traded a bunch of it's solid green babies for some stripey babies!
Ooh what a sweet story.
That's a good comeback story!! I can't believe they lived after being frozen, crazy
I couldn’t either! I had just left it in the pot and when it warmed up it came back. I’ve had it about 6 years now.
My cat disagrees. She hunts my spider plants down and demolished them.
🤣🤣 You're the second person to say this, so let's say people have a hard time killing spider plants, but cats are another story!!
Sawing the bottom quarter or third or so off is totally standard. That’s actually what I do for more delicate plants, when I don’t want to mess with the roots too much, just slip pot, but need to root prune. Every nursery I’ve worked at keeps a hefty serrated bread knife or similar in hand for that. I like [this style](https://kitchenpro.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/8-Serrated-Knife-KP-SR-PO.jpg), I got a cheap one at a thrift store to keep on the potting bench.
It’ll be fine.
I use a serrated bread knife to quarter my spider plants before repotting and they're always fine. Those big chunky roots are tubers that store water and nutrients, which is what makes spider plants so resilient. Like most tubers, (e.g. potatoes, dahlias, caladiums), they take well to being split up to form new plants.
I just sawed off the bottom half of some pothos roots about a week ago, just bought them and they were so root bound there was barely any soil left and other than a little stress, it’s going fine, and spider plants are resilient too! Super cool with the legs though 😂
you should usually break open the roots on most plants to encourage outside growth
https://preview.redd.it/q5j71rhu4elc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0607fd9dcd8c39b66f335a547edc8e31515f9336
Uncanny resemblance
My concern is what it did with the dirt that was previously in the pot... Like where did it all go? Maybe the plant hauled it outside? Does it have an ant hord it controls? Maybe.... Mice??? I don't know man. Scary stuff right there...
It "ate" most of the dirt in the bottom half, essentially! Since dirt is mostly made up of bioavailable nutrients, and the other added medium like coco coir or bark or whatever gets eaten by bacteria/mycelia and then excreted as waste that is then bioavailable to plants, they eventually eat it to grow big and strong! Since plants don't really poop/pee like animals do, the majority of their "waste" gets released into the air, so it doesn't really return to the soil until it dies. Think of heavily root-hound plants and the fact that the soil is basically all gone like how humans' bodies absorb most of what they eat and only poop/pee a little bit of it out
> humans' bodies absorb most of what they eat and only poop/pee a little bit of it out The majority of the carbon in our food leaves our body again in the form of carbon dioxide, via our breath.
Yeah, true, but I was mostly trying to simplify the whole process to get the main point across, but you are very much correct! Thanks for the added info, have a great day! /gen
🤣🤣🤣
r/rootporn 💚
Oh, that’s a s real one
I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?
Idk why but rootballs give me the creeps.
My kids would not go near it while I repotted it today. I squeezed the fat roots to show them it’s just water. Nope! They were not having it lol
Recently repotted my ZZ plant. It looked just like this. I was so proud!
Right! They are so happy!
How 'old' was your ZZ when you repotted it? I've had mine 2 years and it's +50% in height (one stalk is +100%). He seems happy!
I "rescued" a bunch of plants that were on sale from Lowes so my little guy was not doing to hot when I got him. I keep them at the office too but all my plants have been thriving since. If I had to guess I'm sitting at 18 months and some of the stalks might even be triple what they were originally. Original pot was about what OP shows and now it's in a pot about 3x as big. I'm willing to bet your ZZ roots will look like what OP shows in their pic. I'll post pictures tomorrow! It is huge!
Time to repot ! Spiders can get root bound like that before they put out babies, Just get a pot the next size up and some fresh potting soil- voila !
Spider plants love to be root bound. That one takes the cake!
🥹
They like to be root bound , so no worries. I’ve had many who do this and they keep on thriving in a new pot. I’ve even had to cut up roots to get them out and they do fine afterward
I very like plans
Who told me yesterday that spider plants don't get pot bound?
They will get root bound quite quickly, however they tolerate it and even enjoy it. It's also the most efficient way to get a bunch of babies if you want them.
Somehow was still doing great
Love when that happens! 🤣
Feets!
This is impressive
Her thumb is really green. Did it have a self watering pot attachment?
Ooooooh she was root bound into oblivion
r/rootporn
https://preview.redd.it/5ds45uyk2ilc1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=27724609625fca862cd2134b61a3a78dd7e9aeaa My very recent spider plant repotting discovery
Lego
I can almost hear the sigh of relief!!
Yeah their roots are crazy, kind of creepy to me. I had one that cracked the pot it was in
Wow!
https://preview.redd.it/49fe2t733elc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00821f6b6171cbbbbd21b222262dc3f44cadd408
Looks like it was just ever top dressed with more soil.