I went to repot a new plant (after it’s few weeks quarantine) and discovered it’s two plants in small planters planted into a larger pot. It took me about an hour to get the roots out of the small pots and separated. Did I do the right thing?
by lomoore19
16 Comments
Yes, I repotted 2 or 3 of them this summer. That’s how some growers hope to sell their plants better. I am glad you discovered it. It’s not good for the plant. Just separate them by untangling and cutting small pots very carefully. You will have 3 plants to share with friends or sell!
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How stupid! Was the seller too lazy to just slide each plant out of its pot?
Yes, a lot of stores unfortunately do that.
Whichever nursery/grower supplies Walmart does this on lots of plants. I wonder how many people end up with dead plants because they don’t repot right away…
Yeah its common, you did the right thing to seperate them all and divide it up
I had to deal with this and it took about 3 hours 🥲
Oh, yes, I just cut up the plastic pot to get it off
I’ve seen a post here before of a pot, in a pot… repotted in another pot. The picture was fantastic!
Omg I thought the bit of black that’s the pot was where you had severed the plant from the roots and I was so, so sad for you 😅😅😅 I’ll go to bed now.
They are called the cups of death! Try to cut as much away as you can without disturbing the roots! As long as you can get some pressure away from those cups, it should be OK in the long run
unfortunately it’s common for nurseries to do because it helps with the plant’s stability early in life. it’s best just to cut them off when you find them. r/plantabuse
If you did all the work to separate them, you’re good to go.
Honestly, the plant adjusted to having these pots in there to the point where the need for separation from them no longer mattered. The roots are super robust and healthy — they have long gotten past the dangers that the cups of death pose and would have been fine to be left as-is.
But your brain would have whispered to you every night when your head hit the pillow “your aglaonema has pots within its pot isn’t that weird” if you hadn’t gone through the trouble.
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Aglaonemas are my favorites 💚. Most growers like Costa Farms have these cages. Unfortunately if they (growers) removed them it would raise the price. I remove mine whenever I repot, usually 6 months after buying 💚.
Yes! It took forever to get the roots out without damaging it:
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Yes, with that exact plant. I just removed them
Lol. Orchid pots. That’s one way to full the pot.