Pothos in a 15cm pot, roots circling out of the drainage holes and the soil dries out in three days now. It is late October, my flat faces north and gets fairly weak light all winter, no grow lights. I have the pot and the mix already, so cost is not the issue, it is whether repotting into low light in autumn shocks it. Do I go now or wait five months?
Pothos is about the most forgiving plant in the house and I have repotted them in every month of the year without drama. If it were a calathea or a maranta I would be more careful about timing.
Agreed. Species tolerance matters far more than season for common trailing plants. A stressed rootbound plant is more at risk than a gently potted one.
Use a slightly chunkier mix than you would in summer. In weak winter light the mix's ability to dry is doing half the work of keeping the roots healthy.
Third option nobody mentions: take four cuttings while you are at it, root them in water, and put them back in the same pot in spring. You end up with a fuller plant and an insurance policy if the parent sulks.
@repot_ren · 11mo ago · 3 replies
Repot now, but do it as a pot-up rather than a root disturbance. Going up one size, 15cm to 18cm, teasing the circling roots apart gently and adding fresh mix around the outside is barely stressful and it solves the real problem, which is that a pot drying in three days means you cannot keep it evenly watered all winter. The advice to wait for spring exists because people hear repot and think full root wash and root pruning. That, in a north-facing flat in October, I would genuinely wait on.
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@repot_ren · 11mo ago
One size is the right jump. Going much bigger in low light gives you a large volume of wet mix the plant cannot use, which is where the root rot stories come from.
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@fiscal_yearend · 11mo ago
So the distinction is disturbance, not the calendar. Would you use a smaller jump than one size given the low light?
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