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3 years without a repot….
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3 years without a repot….


I haven’t repotted my Areca palm for about 3 years. Over the past few months, I noticed the leaves turning yellow and the plant looking less and less healthy. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I finally decided to repot it today.

When I took it out of the pot, this is what I found — the entire root system was completely packed and wrapped around itself. I’ve never seen it this root-bound before.

I ended up cutting around 30–40% of the outer roots and repotted it into fresh soil. Really hoping it recovers, because it hasn’t been doing well for a while.

Sharing the photo here in case it’s useful for anyone else who’s been delaying a repot as long as I did.

by ownroom000

16 Comments

  1. Suspicious-Cable-502

    It’ll be fine. Looks healthy! 😊

  2. anonknightx

    love your repotting method, honestly perfect

  3. ChrisCrozz-9

    Thank you for the inspiration. I have this plant and it’s such a lovely plant and I feel like I just abuse it by not repotting it.

  4. thevhatch

    It’s interesting to see how much soil there still is in the center despite the outside edge being completely roots.

  6. Unfair_Shallot_4278

    r/wheresthedirt

    It looks like you used one of those fancy air pots lol.

  7. WakingOwl1

    I did that with one of my triostars recently. Poor thing was a solid mass of roots. I tried soaking it all day to loosen them up but that did nothing. I cut off the bottom, put slits down the side and gave it a three inch larger pot. A few moths later I can see that the roots are spreading out a bit.

  8. Left-Cheetah-7172

    I love how the pattern on the pot matches the palm. 

  9. Tony_228

    This isn’t a single palm fyi. Every single stalk is an individual plant.

  11. johndepp22

    is it best practice to cut roots? hard to explain but I feel like this will make my plants ‘angry’

    what happens if you just repot with the bound roots as-is, won’t they naturally expand? TIA

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