From sickness to strength

My to-do list is getting longer and longer every day, so there are some less important things that I had to choose to neglect otherwise I would get nuts. I've been taking care of interior plants for the last 10 years, and I can say that I know their needs very well. I knew that I should repot a few plants, but I kept postponing it for too long and today I've noticed that some of them got thrips.

This is such a bummer as I consider them the worst pest because it takes ages to get rid of them. I brought them in summer with calendula flowers from the garden, and I've been struggling with them ever since. I have all infected plants in the 'quarantine' in my office, but apparently they somehow got to the living room too! I had no choice, but to act.

Let me take you through the process...

This Tradescantia is damaged a lot, but it's not unusual for this kind of plant. The vines keep growing, but the leaves very often fall off especially during the winter months. I have this plant for about 5 years, and every year I repot it to freshen it up and make it healthier and stronger. However, this time it's a bit more complicated because of the thrips.

First of all, I take as many cuttings as I can. Usually, it would be many more, but I had to throw a big part away because of the pests. Thrips are easy to see as they are those tiny white larvae that move very fast. They are easy to spot if you have colourful leaves. The adult thrip is black and can jump, so if you have an infested plant you need to isolate it because they will move quickly to all other plants in the room. And they can bite you!

Also, they might be in the soil, so you need to throw away the old soil, and clean the flower pot well. I'm using rubbing alcohol as they seem to be almost invincible!

I checked every single leaf and stem, but to be really sure that I got rid of all of them I put the cuttings in water for a few minutes.

In the meantime, I prepared a new flower pot (with holes on the bottom) that I filled with fresh potting soil. Once done, I watered it lightly to make it easier for me to plant the cuttings.

Your cuttings should have a bump with tiny spots. Those will become roots. Many people put the seedlings in water first to root them, but I stick them directly in the soil, and it works every time. Tradescantia is very easy to reproduce.

I made small holes with a chopstick and stick a cutting in each one of them. You can arrange it in any way you wish.

Then I put the flower pot in a decorative pot, and placed it in its usual place on a window sill. In a few weeks, the plant will become strong and bushy. I will keep checking it to see if there are any signs of thrips.

I love my pathos! Some years ago, I planted a few seedlings using several varieties, and it worked perfectly. The plant has overgrown its flower pot long time ago, but it was still thriving, so I didn't want to disrupt it. I have a rule that I only repot when I see some signs of stress. As long as the plant is happy I don't want to disrupt its roots unnecessarily.

However, last week I started to notice that some leaves were getting yellow, so I knew it was time to give it a bigger home.

In the past, I used to make my own potting mix, but I don't have time for this anymore. I tried this potting soil a few years ago, and it works very well, so I kept using it.

I have selected a flower pot that is two sizes bigger than the one before. Usually, I would take one size bigger, but I don't like to repot plants with vines too often because I would hate to break one of those beautiful long vines.

I started by removing the leaves that were yellowing or damaged.

Luckily, there were not that many yet. I have also checked for any signs of thrips, but I need to get a magnifying glass because I can't see white pests on white leaves.

When I removed the plastic pot I saw that it's not going to be easy to remove the plant because the roots are growing out of it. I cut the tips as they were rotting.

Then I've tried to remove the plant out of the pot. As you can see there was a casualty!

When I finally managed to get it out I was not surprised it was this root bound. I started to carefully move the roots in order to detangle them a bit. I broke a few of them in the process, but it should not cause any issues.

After 10 minutes and damaged nails it looked like this. Ready to move it to the pot!

I placed a bit of potting soil in the plastic pot.

Then I placed the plant in the middle and filled the pot up with the soil.

It was time to detangle the vines! They were so long and I had to be careful not to step on them.

I started to move the vines around the pot as the old vines lost some leaves, and I wanted to improve its appearance. Those old vines have air roots, and if you bury them they will grow roots and strengthen the plant.

Simply put some soil on them and tap it down.

I didn't break any vines today! And this is how the plant looked like when I finished. If you're familiar with pathos variety you can easily see at least three of them in this photo.

And a little bit of photo spam 😊

At the end, I placed it next to the tradescantia on the window sill. They've been next to each other for years, so I'm sure they're happy to see each other again 😊