Gadenin日本語Get the appWhen to do it, and when not to
Repot at the start of a growing season so the plant can regrow roots straight away: spring as it wakes up, or early autumn once the worst heat has passed. Autumn is often the better of the two, because autumn growth is strong and the plant has months of moderate weather ahead of it.
Do not repot in high summer. Disturbed roots on a resting plant simply sit in damp compost without growing, and that is how a healthy haworthia is lost on the potting bench. Do not repot in the depths of winter either, unless you are dealing with rot, in which case act immediately whatever the season.
Most plants want repotting every two years. Do it sooner if offsets have filled the pot to the rim, if water runs straight through without wetting anything, or if the plant has been in the same compost for three years and has stopped producing new leaves in the center.
| Sign | What it means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Offsets crowding the rim, no bare compost visible | Root space is gone | Repot and divide at the next growing season |
| Water runs through in seconds and the pot stays light | Compost has broken down or roots fill the pot | Repot into fresh gritty mix |
| Plant sits loose and rocks in its pot | Roots have died back | Unpot and check the base now, whatever the season |
| No new leaf from the center for a full year | Exhausted compost or lost roots | Repot at the next growing season |
| White crust on the compost surface | Mineral salts from hard water or feed | Scrape off the top inch, or repot in spring |
Compost and pot
A haworthia wants a mix that holds a little moisture but drains within seconds, and the practical target is about half mineral grit by volume. A workable recipe is one part standard peat-free potting mix, one part coarse sand or fine gravel around an eighth of an inch (3 mm), and one part pumice or perlite. Bagged cactus compost straight from the bag is usually too rich and too fine, so cut it with an equal volume of grit.
Pot size matters more than pot material. Choose a pot no more than half an inch (1 cm) wider than the rosette itself, including offsets you intend to keep. An oversized pot holds a reservoir of damp compost the small root system cannot reach, and that reservoir stays wet for weeks. Depth is worth having: haworthia roots run down rather than out, so a pot as deep as it is wide suits them better than a shallow bowl.
Clay dries faster than plastic and forgives heavy watering. Plastic keeps the roots more evenly moist and suits someone who waters sparingly. Either works as long as it has a drainage hole, and a pot without one cannot be made to work with any amount of gravel in the bottom.
A layer of gravel at the base of the pot does not improve drainage. It raises the wet zone up into the root ball. Use a gritty mix all the way through instead.
The thick roots that die back are normal
The first time someone unpots a haworthia they usually think the plant is dying. The thick, fleshy roots have shriveled to brown strings and only a few pale ones look alive. This is normal. Those swollen roots are storage organs that contract and die back after they have done their job, particularly after a hot summer or a dry winter, and the plant replaces them from the base each growing season.
What matters is the base of the plant itself, not the old roots. Squeeze it gently: firm and pale means healthy, soft or brown means rot. A firm base with almost no live roots will regrow a full root system within a couple of months of being potted into fresh compost in a growing season.
- Let the compost go dry first Stop watering a week before you plan to repot. Dry compost falls away from the roots instead of tearing them, and dry root tissue is far less likely to rot where it gets damaged.
- Tip it out and clear the old compost off Support the rosette with your fingers spread around the base and turn the pot over. Crumble away as much old compost as comes off easily, working with your fingers rather than a tool.
- Cut away dead roots Remove anything brown, hollow or stringy with clean scissors, cutting back to firm pale tissue. Leave every live root you can, even short ones. There is no need to disinfect or dust the cuts.
- Take offsets now if you want them This is the easiest moment to separate offsets, since you can see where each one joins the parent. Keep any roots attached to the offset and set it aside in shade.
- Pot at the same depth, in dry compost Position the plant so the lowest leaves sit just above the surface, never buried, and work dry mix around the roots by tapping the pot rather than pressing down hard.
- Wait a week, then water Give no water for five to seven days so any damaged root ends can seal. Then water thoroughly and return to the normal cycle for the season.
The first month afterwards
Keep a freshly repotted plant in bright shade rather than its usual sunniest spot for two to three weeks. It has fewer working roots than it did and cannot supply leaves in strong light. Do not feed at all for the first two months, since fresh compost carries enough and fertilizer on damaged roots does more harm than good.
Expect a pause. New leaves usually appear four to eight weeks after repotting, and the outer leaves may soften slightly in the meantime while the plant lives off them. That softening is not a sign to water more. Resist the urge to lift the plant out and check on it: every inspection breaks the new roots it is trying to make.
Keeping track between repottings
Write the repotting date on a label pushed into the pot, along with the pot size in inches. Two years later that one line tells you whether the plant is due, which is otherwise impossible to remember across several similar-looking pots.
Add a note on what you saw at the roots: plenty of live root, or almost none, and how many offsets came off. Over three repottings that history shows whether your compost and watering suit the plant, because a plant in a mix that works comes out of the pot with a solid mass of pale live roots every single time.