Caring for mother-in-law's tongue at home - how to properly replant a flower?

According to most gardeners, caring for sansevieria (the official name of the plant) is a complete pleasure. The only thing is that you need to clearly know how to transplant your mother-in-law’s tongue at home so that it continues to delight you with its bright leaves. The manipulation itself is not so complicated, but it does imply the presence of certain features.

It only needs to be done when the roots of the plant have filled the entire pot. Despite its unpretentious appearance, not a single flower can tolerate cramped conditions and forced restrictions. To carry out the manipulation, you do not need to have any special skills, you just need to strictly adhere to the basic technical recommendations.

Frequency of manipulations and soil preparation rules

How often to repot a plant depends on its age. And here the standard rule applies - the older the specimen, the less often it can be disturbed. It is recommended to update the soil of a young flower at least once every 1-2 years. An adult mother-in-law's tongue needs a similar procedure once every 3-4 years. It is best to carry out the manipulation in the spring, then the pet will have time to recover.

Tip: In cases where the plant is already mature and has reached an impressive size, the replanting procedure can be replaced with a simpler approach. You need to remove the top layer of soil from the existing pot and replace it with fresh one.True, this approach is allowed only when using a wide container for the plant, sufficient to accommodate all its roots.

To properly transplant Sansivieria, you need to pay special attention to the composition of the soil. According to most experts, it should be like this: 1 part humus and sand to 2 parts turf soil. Sometimes turf is replaced with leaf soil and peat, taken in equal proportions.

Technical features of the process

When choosing a new pot, you need to take into account the fact that the mother-in-law’s tongue spreads out in breadth and not in depth with its roots. For this reason, we can only consider containers that have low sides but a very wide bottom.

The process of replanting a plant is as follows:

• First, the mother-in-law's tongue needs to be thoroughly watered. If this is not done, you can cause damage to the root system, and it is quite difficult to remove the specimen from dry soil.
• Place drainage and a layer of new soil into the prepared container.
• Carefully remove the flower from the old pot. If necessary, you can slightly dig it up with something narrow, for example, a pencil.
• Before planting the plant in another pot, you need to carefully separate the old soil from the root system with your hands. If rotten roots are found, they can be cut off and the sections can be disinfected. At home, it is recommended to use special products or crushed activated carbon for this.

• In a new container, we place the mother-in-law’s tongue strictly in the center, after which we sprinkle the rhizome with soil. All roots must be hidden.
• It is recommended to lightly trample and compact the soil, but there is no need to press hard.
• After the flower transplantation process is completed, it is recommended to place it in partial shade and avoid watering for several days. If the manipulation was carried out correctly, the mother-in-law’s tongue will not react to it in any way.

The period of replanting a plant is the most suitable time for its propagation by dividing the rhizome. It is this approach that is the most effective of the amateur ones; you just need to act carefully so as not to damage the parts of the root used.