Cut back about half the roots on a peace lily two weeks ago, all the brown mushy ones, repotted into fresh airy mix, no fertiliser. It has not wilted further and it has not died, but it also has not done anything at all. Two of the older leaves have gone yellow and I removed them. I keep checking every morning like an idiot. What is a realistic timeline for a sign of life?
Peace lilies also tell you their water status very clearly by drooping, so use that rather than a schedule while the root system is small. Water when it just begins to droop, and do not let it sit in a saucer.
With a caution: repeated dramatic droops are still stressful. Once is diagnostic, weekly is a habit worth fixing.
Put it somewhere with bright indirect light rather than a dim corner to recover. Recovery is expensive and the plant needs to pay for it somehow.
Hold off on fertiliser for at least two months. Fresh roots are easy to burn, and a plant with no growth has no demand for nutrients anyway. This is the single most common way people finish off a plant they nearly saved.
@braise_or_bust · 3mo ago · 3 replies
Four to eight weeks for visible new growth is the normal range after losing half the roots, and longer if the light is average or the temperature is cool. The plant is rebuilding a root system before it spends anything on leaves, which is the correct order and also completely invisible from the outside. Losing a couple of old leaves in that period is expected: the reduced root mass cannot support all the existing foliage. What you want to see is the newest leaves staying firm and green, not the count going up.
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@repot_ren · 3mo ago
The interfering is the real risk in this window. Every time I have lost a plant after root surgery it was because I got impatient and watered or fed it.
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@invoice_ivy · 3mo ago
Two more weeks and the growing point in the middle looks like it is starting to push. So four weeks total. Thank you for the number, it stopped me interfering.
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