How And When To Repot Cactus And Succulents - 5 Essential Tips

Hey I'm Jeff and welcome back to another video. Today I'm going to give you five tips on how and when to repot your succulent or cactus. So let's check it out. These plants are fairly slow growing and they can actually remain in the same pot for a number of years. For an example back here is my over 15 year old jade plant. It's probably been in the same size pot for the last 10 years. It has had some soil changes. So if you're noticing that the soil is absolutely rock hard and you don't remember the last time it has had fresh soil, then that is a good reason to repot. If you start to see some roots poking out the bottom of the pot, it's probably a good time to take a look at the root system, pull out of the pot, see if it is root bound. It might also have a little bit of yellowing leaves or even a leaf drop. Just take it out of the pot and give it some fresh soil. If the plant simply outgrows the pot, that's another reason to repot it into something different. For an example these Echeveria purpursorum, they do put out little pops and sometimes they will spill over the edge of the pot. The reason why I'm repotting my Euphorbia white ghost today is you can see it's a little bit kind of off center. It's offset to the side here. Anytime you touch it or bump it, it just wants to flop right over. So I want to center it a little bit better in the pot so it remains a little bit stable. So these are some of the reasons why you'd want to repot your cactus or succulent. Tip number two is selecting a proper pot and I'll always recommend there be a large enough drain hole on the bottom. There has to be a way for excess water to flow out and it'll be better understood when I remove these plants from their soil. Like this one right here, you can see the root system, they're very fibrous, they're very thin, so you can see how easily they will develop root rot if they're just sitting in soggy soil. Even the pot type matters. I use terracotta for most of my cactus and succulents for the fact that it's very porous. It absorbs soil moisture in the pot and it evaporates it out. That just isn't the case when you have a plastic nursery pot, but you still can use them. Just make sure it has drain holes in the bottom. You'll just have to pay a little bit closer attention to the moisture in the soil and sometimes when the top is dry, the lower half might still be a bit soggy, so you can use a moisture meter or just stick your finger in the soil just to see if it's dry or even the weight of the pot. But most of the troubles with a plastic nursery pot can be avoided if you just use terracotta. Now the size of the pot is important as well. Typically you want to select a pot that is just slightly larger than the plant itself. So you can see this Echeveria purpursorum. It's in a very small, this is maybe like a two inch, three inch terracotta pot and it's just slightly larger or wider than the plant itself. So this is an ideal sized pot, but there is some roots broken out the bottom. I'll have to take it out and have a look at that, but overall the plant is not struggling. It's not losing leaves, so I'm not too worried about this size right now. Now for this little guy, I'm not too sure of the actual name of this, but I think it is called a brain cactus, the common name. You can see it's a fairly small plant, but it's in way too large of a pot. So I'm actually going to downsize this into something smaller and it's still in its original plastic nursery pot as well as soil. When you have a plant that is in too large of a pot, when you water it, the soil probably won't dry out fast enough. The plant can't use that moisture fast enough, like uptake through the roots, and it can't evaporate because it's in a plastic nursery pot. So that is the situation or the cases when you run into root rot. The roots stay wet or soggy for too long. They don't have the ability to dry out fast enough and they end up rotting. So I want to take this out, put it in a terracotta pot in something a little bit smaller. Tip number three is selecting the appropriate soil. Do not use just a regular potting mix. Regular potting mixes, they have, or they're primarily peat moss based. Peat moss holds or retains moisture. That's exactly what you don't want to do. Now this ProMix premium cactus mix, it does have peat moss in there, but it also has other soil amendments like perlite and as well as sand. So it's a really well draining soil. I've used this for all of my cactus and succulents and they've done really well. It's a really well draining soil. But today I'm going to be using for the first time Berry Plants Molly's Succulent Mix. This is super gritty. It's going to be a very well draining soil. So I'm looking forward to using this. So now I'm going to try that little brain cactus in this soil mixture. Berry Plants was kind enough to send me a free pack to try out. Plus there's also a 10% discount code down in the description of this video if you're interested in trying it out for yourself. Now let's take this little cactus out of the pot. Just going to use a little plastic pot just to place over top of it just so I don't get poked. It's not root bound or anything like that. So the root system looks good. It's breaking away pretty easily so I'm not too worried about damaging the roots. Sometimes you may have to soak the soil just to kind of loosen it up if it's really rock hard. And I'll show you the root system here in a second. Succulents and they don't have a large root system and it is very very thin roots. They're very delicate so they're very susceptible to root rot. Okay so something like this. You can see the plant right there and then here's the very thin fibrous root system. Now I'm just going to put this right in here for a second. I'm going to be potting it in a smaller terracotta pot so you can see the difference in size. So it's definitely not as deep and you can see the circumference is quite small as well. So now I'm just going to squeeze this. Just kind of size it up a little bit. I'm going to put some of this gritty mixture in the bottom of this pot here first. Okay so you can see there is a little bit of that gritty mix in the bottom. I'm just going to flip this plant over like that. Just kind of drop it in. Now don't try this at home folks. I am a professional without getting poked. I can feel the little thorns there. I'm just going to seat that right there and then I'm just going to dump in some of this gritty mixture like that. Packing it down slightly. I want it to remain at the same height as it was in the previous pot. I don't want it to fall over so I'm just trying to re-center it because it was a little bit off to the side there. Now I just fill up the little cup here. I'm just going to use a little scoop and same thing. Just fill it in around the sides. I'm just going to fill it until it's a little bit below the lip of the pot. The edge of the pot there. There. So tip number four is removing old soil. This Euphorbia White Ghost was taken from a small cutting which I had planted in a cactus succulent specific soil probably about three years ago and just like everything else it degrades over time especially when there is peat moss in it which this does have. It just loses the ability to retain moisture. Basically it just flows out the bottom. It becomes very compact. It's just not a good soil choice so taking it out and refreshing soil every two to three years is a good choice for not only succulents but for most of your houseplants. Now for this one I'm going to do the same thing. Just remove it from the soil or from the pot and I'm going to put it in some fresh soil. The succulent mixture from berry plants. So I have to be careful not to touch these spikes or thorns. I can't remember what the spikes on a succulent are called. I think it is spine. A nice root system on this one. You can see it's starting to encircle on the bottom so I might actually repot this into one pot size larger. That's typically the rule when you have to upsize a pot or a plant in another pot is go one size larger. So I'm going to see what I have. I got a lot of pots in my little plant table here so I'm going to see what I have and put it in something a little bit larger. So like I said I get most of my pots from the dollar store. Here is the original pot that it came out of and then here's the kind of next size larger. So a little bit deeper as well but definitely the circumference is just slightly larger than the original pot and when I place the plant in the pot you can see there's some room for it to grow down and as well as outwards. So I'm going to remove as much of the soil on this one as I can again with my pencil trying to keep intact all of these roots. This euphorbia actually has thicker roots than most cactus and succulents that I've seen out there. So this is I would say like a fairly normal sized root system. I'm just trying to be very dealt oops got poked. You can use tongs or something to hold on to like a glove. I just don't have anything on hand right now and I don't want to get in trouble for using our salad tongs upstairs. There are different methods of holding or stabilizing a cactus and succulent without getting poked. So yeah I thought about using these salad tongs for this one. There something like that should be good. Now I'm going to be putting it in that chunky mixture again. So because this cutting has such a drastic curve I think it's just because I didn't rotate it when it was first starting out. I'm going to plant it upright like this and I'm going to see if this top portion corrects and leans or kind of leans towards the light again. So I'm going to try that. So I'm going to put a little bit of this mix just at the bottom. There's a little bit that falls out but that's okay. So I'm going to pot it something like this. I'm going to hold it and then I'll just dump in the mixture and over time and obviously with rotating the plant hopefully it corrects the lean into more of a straight structure. So I'm just potting it or placing it upright and in the center of the pot. So I want to make sure it remains upright which it is. So I don't want it to fall over when I when I go to work or something like that or someone bumps it. I don't want it to fall over. I think I'm going to try a little support stake. So I'm just going to push this down alongside the back of the plant and I'm just going to use this little plant fabric for now just until it grows into the new mixture like that. So there that ain't going anywhere now. Tip number five is after you repot a plant only give it water if it needed to be watered before you did the repotting. With this Echeveria here I always squeeze the leaves if they are thick and firm. If they're plump then it does not need to be watered even though the soil is absolutely bone dry. Once they start to get a little bit thin or a little bit squishy then I will give it a good thorough watering. Now if you have a succulent like a jade plant I like to do the taco test. Same with jade plant leaves. They should be firm. They should be plump. You shouldn't be able to squeeze them or fold them but if you're able to slightly bend them or fold them like a taco then they definitely need to be watered in conjunction with dry soil. So that's how you can tell if a succulent or a cactus needs to be watered. Sometimes cactus can get a little bit wrinkly as well. So I'm going to try watering with this new mixture. I'm just going to set this one over here and just to see how quick draining this soil is. So I'm going to water it until it comes out to the bottom of the drain hole and I'm just going to soak it. See it's already coming out the bottom. So that is exactly what you want to see when you have a cactus or succulent in a soil mixture. Let's try this little brain cactus here. Same thing. I'm just going to soak this. I should be able to continuously soak it. Let it come out the bottom and it's not going to be over watered. When you have a situation of root rot or over watering, little quotation marks there, it's when the plant sits in soil that remains wet for too long. Oops, gave a little bit too much. It's flowing over the top but you should see how quick that drains down. This is awesome soil. So that's all the water I'm going to give these guys. Just pack that. Actually I'm going to give this one just a little bit more. Just I'll do it again just to show you how fast it goes down. Just right out the bottom. Those are the basic tips that I would use for repotting but there's going to be a little bit of bonus footage here. I want to separate this pin cushion cactus which is still flowering. It's been flowering for about the last month. I want to separate this from these Echeveria purpursorums. They were all propagated by single leaves and you see very similar to this little one right here. I just stuck a leaf in there. I did a whole tray of these purpursorums and then I placed them in this pot. So I think it's time for this old pin cushion cactus. I think it's about six years old to have its own separate pot and the way I'm going to do that first off is place this squishy plastic nursery pot over top of it so I don't get poked and then I'm going to remove these little purpursorums and then like these are absolutely gorgeous. I love these succulents. Beautiful. I have yet to have one of these purpursorums flower for me so I'm just going to use my little shovel and I'm going to dig these guys out first in little clumps. They should have small roots as well and they'll pop out very easily like this. Again there's those very thin fibrous roots. Beautiful, beautiful plant. It's got the kind of reddish purple undertone on the leaves or the underside of the leaves. Just gorgeous. So I'm going to pluck away at the soil on this one and just get it prepped for its own little pot just so I can make sure I choose the appropriate size pot. I'm just breaking up the soil on this here. If you happen to break some roots on a succulent or a cactus, these are such resilient plants. I did a very hard prune on one of my jade plants upstairs. I basically cut off like two-thirds of the root system of one of my mature jades and it's growing. It's growing like nothing happened. So don't be scared if you happen to break off a stem. You can propagate that or if you break some roots, they're super resilient. They will bounce back quite easily. So that's why I'm being a little bit more aggressive with these ones. I'm just pulling on it like this and just take it out, knock off the soil. Again here's a big chunk of root system that just fell off. I'm so I want as much of the soil off as I can. If you propagate plants, you probably know that it takes a long time. I think these purposorums, so a couple of these little leaves just fell right off. I'm going to propagate these as well. It takes a long time. So these purposorums are probably, I would guess, about two years old. Okay so I'm going to set those aside just over here with their little broken leaves. Now I'm really curious to see the root system on this big boy here. Hopefully it's not the size of the pot. Oh my goodness, it is the entire pot. It looks like there's a little bit of mold on there as well. It's the entire pot. Look at that. Crazy. Okay set that aside and I'm going to see if I can knock off as much soil as I can and look at the root system. So this one definitely has some larger roots and then it has much finer roots. So I want to keep intact the large roots. I don't want to destroy those. If I damage these smaller roots, not a big deal. Those will regrow without a problem. I don't want this, holy cow, I don't want to send this thing into complete shock. But again, you can literally cut a cactus in half, stick it in a pot of soil and it'll root. So these are the roots that I want to maintain. These thick ones right there. I know there's probably people going to say that I shouldn't be doing this while the plant is flowering because it's probably going to discourage any further flowers. Okay I managed to get off as much soil as I can. This just looks like a big giant potato. Spiky potato. Got a fairly decent root system left on there but I did pull off some of these smaller fibrous roots. So now I'm just going to size it up in this pot. It should be okay. Again, I don't want to go too large. You just want something slightly larger than the plant itself. So I'm going to put this right here and now I'm going to discard this soil and then I'll be putting in some of this succulent mixture into the pot. I'm just going to do the same thing and fill up my terracotta pot. Some soil in the bottom like that. I'm just going to size it up. Get those roots in there. Something maybe a little bit more on the bottom. Give it some room to grow like that. Maybe it looks like half. Take a little bit out of there. So the previous soil line was right around here and that's what I want to keep it at. I want to get my hand in the way of the shot here so I'm just going to use this pencil just as a little bit of a guide just to hold it upright. That way I can get some soil around here and just kind of pack it down just so it stays upright. The tough thing is removing this little cap from the cactus because it's on there and I don't want to pull it out so I'd have to get a towel or something and just squeeze the cactus at the bottom here. I should have loosened it up a little bit. See if I can pull it off. There you go. Okay so that actually wasn't too bad. I was worried about just like yanking the whole cactus out of the pot. Now again I can use this pencil as a bit of a guide just to not only poke down the soil but just make sure that it's not flopping over to one side. Okay so that's in there pretty good. I just hate when you get little flakes from the soil on the plant itself. It's a nightmare to get out. I really don't want to spray it off. I will be watering this here in a moment but I want to plant those purposorum together in a pot and then I'll water them all together. I'm just in the process of removing all the soil from this purposorum and look how thin these roots are. Like they're just they're like strands of hair. So I'm going to take all this soil off and then we'll pot these little purposorums all up together. So I'll keep that one sticking out of the pot but I'm just going to place it at the back. Something like that and then I can arrange these ones maybe more on the side. I'm going to put a little bit more in there. Let's see this one I kind of want in the front. This one I can put on the side. It's going to be a full pot. I'm just going to dump it in and then I'm going to use my pencil to kind of push it back to fill in these ones here and then I can make a little divot for this one right here just to fill in just kind of on the side. It definitely has room to grow down in the pot. There I like this way a little bit better. So I'm just going to again just push all that soil back there in between these cuttings just so it fills in. Something like that and going anywhere and now I can take out a little divot to pot this small little cutting in just like that and then I can use again my pencil just to push in some of that soil around the sides like that. So this is a nice full succulent arrangement. Everything looks to be stable. Put a little bit back there. It's tucked in nice. That one should be there. I think that looks awesome. A nice full pot of the purposorum and that is how you repot a nice succulent mixture. Oh I don't know what you call it. Arrangement. So now I'm going to give the cactus here a good thorough watering. This one definitely needs to be watered. The purposorum however the leaves are still quite thick. They're very plump so I'm not going to water this one for probably about another week or so and then I'll check on that. If you are interested in the Very Plants succulent mixture they also have an aeroid soil as well. I did make a video or I used it in a video recently. Go check out their website. Use the discount code Everything Plants. There's a link in the description of this video as well. I do get a little commission from those sales. It's a great soil. I can tell already that these plants are going to do very very well in this succulent mixture. I'm not too sure if they ship to the US right now. I know they're working on it but I think right now shipping is primarily in Canada. I'm not too sure. I'll leave a little comment with a pin on it about their shipping in the description of this video. I'm just going to soak this one. It's making like weird hissing noises. I don't know if you can hear it but I just about poked myself in the face but it is draining very nice. I'm going to set that aside. Let it continue to drain then I'm going to put it in our back in the south facing window. So I think that's going to be pretty much it for this video. If you have any comments or questions please leave it down. Please leave it down in the comment section. Thanks for watching my videos everyone. Take care. Bye.