repotting a plant that uses glued rocks as soil

it looks like a mix between red-margined dracaena and a bonsaii tree. the roots are wrapping around the bottom of the pot and i am not for sure exactly what to do.

Do you mean there's no soil or potting mix, only glued rocks? What are the roots wrapping around? The glued rocks?

I suspect it's one of those where there's potting mix underneath and then a layer of rocks glued over the top. If that's the case, you'll have to scrape off the glued on rocks first, then you should be able to remove it from the pot and repot it as you would with any other plant. Hopefully you won't have to resort to breaking the pot in order to get the rocks off--the one plant I bought a long time ago that had the glued on rocks they were fairly easy to remove.

Here's what it looks like. Do you have any suggestions on how to scrape the rocks off? It seems that if I do I might damage trunk of the tree or the roots. These seem very stuck on!!

If they're too stuck on and you can't remove them, it'll look a little silly but you could just repot with them there, since you've got access to the roots underneath that need to be untangled you could just forget the rocks and repot. However in the long run if the trunk gets fatter the rocks could be a problem so I would try to remove them if you can, start with just trying to pry off a few rocks at a time with tweezers or something--I think you'll find the rocks are more firmly stuck to each other than they are to the soil/roots so you won't damage much by tweezering off the rocks that are glued to other rocks, and once you get to the point where you're at a thinner layer that's on top of the soil I think you'll find they're a lot easier to remove. And if you wind up with a few that are glued to the trunk I'd just leave those.

I will absolutely try that!! I appreciate the information and will let you know of the progress. I am still astounded by how root bound it is!!
Thank you so much!

strawbeerygirl

I'm sorry I got so busy that I'm just now replying to your message. Whoever wholesaled that plant glued the gravel on the surface so it wouldn't get disturbed when the plants were in transit. That is a shameful practice. Succulents (which this evidently is not) usually have a thin layer of pea gravel or crushed granite on top of the soil to keep the leaves from touching damp soil and rotting. I have never in 25 years of gardening seen anyone GLUE the gravel into a mass. The only thing you can do is gently break off all of that gunk you can, while at the same time avoiding damage to the main stem shown in the photo. You may be able to coax it all off. Since the main stem of your plant is bare, there's no reason to add gravel after you repot it- I doubt you would do that in any case. Good luck, and please report on how this turns out.

I have had luck removing the glued rock "mulch" by soaking the entire plant in a bucket of warm water for a couple of hours. Most plants can take a soak that long without damage. You will lose some soil, but not as much as you'd think. I always figured that it was a good idea to replace some of that soil anyway. It's probably just in my head, but I think of the soil beneath that sealed surface as "damaged goods" anyway. It has been cut off from a good oxygen supply for too long. I say, give the plant a fresh start!

Good input, growgirl...So you have also run into this abominable practice of glueing the gravel to hold it in place. straw............ I'd for sure give her suggestion a try.

I've seen it too--several years ago before I was really into gardening I bought a couple little bonsai plants from Walmart or someplace along those lines and they had the glued on gravel too. On mine though the rocks must not have been glued very well because I didn't have too much trouble getting them off.

Thank you all for your great advice. Yes I did buy mine at Walmart... that and Home depot are what I have to work with in this back-of-the-woods country that I live in. I am going to try soaking it in water and let you know of the progress. I tried to tweeze the rocks off, but they are so firmly stuck that I gave up on that. I actually was thinking of chopping all the roots down, but i really don't want to do that. Thank you all so much!!

No, don't cut off the roots, unless they are shriveled and mushy. Your plant looks root bound, so a light trim of the roots may be necessary, but a heavy pruning of the roots at this time would not be good for your plant. If all else fails, you can wash most of the soil away from the roots. This should leave enough of a gap between the rock "slab"and the roots. Then you can carefully crack the rock with a small hammer (be sure to brace it against a solid surface). One firm wack should crack it straight to the middle. Wear sunglasses or safety glasses - I learned this the hard way. It will break apart pretty easily this way. If you do it lightly, you will make a big mess and the ring around stem will remain. At that point it will be very difficult to remove without doing damage to the plant. Let's hope this practice is something we see less and less of. You can bet that whoever came up with this idea is not a plant lover. I bought an Adenium Obesum at Lowes last year that had almost an inch thick cemented rock "mulch" over the surface of the dirt. Now, while I have that hammer out....

This message was edited Sep 6, 2008 2:08 AM

I've seen these, too. The poor plant has no way to grow with all that stuff in it's way. I've been tempted to rescue a couple and see if I can get the rocks off the top.

Let us know if you get it off. And how you did it.

I was at Home Depot and saw a nice bonsai ficus benjamina. Went over and felt the gravel on top, and sure enough it had been glued into a mass. I was horrified. The problem of shipping and handling plants with a thin layer of loose gravel on top is understandable, but it has been done for years. In fact, my grocery store has a lot of succulents right now, and all the gravel is loose and they are in fine shape, thank you. That's where I got my adenium. How are people supposed to water plants with this glued mass on top of the soil? The growers might say to use bottom watering, but I say shame on them.

Is that why they do this? To ship the plants better!?! I agree dp... I water it slowly from the top, but if I'm not careful it all runs down the rocks. Well I can say that soaking the rocks only helped about 20%. I have to say that if I didn't have the input I'm getting from all you wonderful people, I probably would have just repotted it and been disgusted. I think since the soils saturated and the glue is weak I'll try to break the rocks off... thank you much grow girl... This seems the best way to eliminate these rocks with minimal strain on my plant. I will let you know. Again though, I can't believe they would do this just for shipping purposes!! I thought I'd post a pic of my entertainment center (I have over 100 house plants that all do fabulous) Thank you lovely people!!

beautiful photo! there is no other logical reason for glueing the rocks other than to keep them in place during shipping. You know how boxes get tossed around, turned on their sides, what not. the gravel would fall off.

if for no other reason, the glued mass needs to be removed because as the main stem grows in diameter, the glued mass will choke it. It would be like putting a metal " dog collar" on a tree trunk.

i think if you'll go back to the 2:06 AM message from growgirl and follow her suggestion of putting the edge of the cemented gravel on a firm surface and tapping with a hammer until it breaks is the best thing to do.

if the plant is a succulent (and yours doesn't appear to be), when you repot, it's a good idea to put a thin layer of pea gravel or crushed granite on top of the soil. That keeps the leaves from touching moist soil and possibly rotting. Believe it or not, you get crushed granite at feed stores. it's fed to chickens. it stays in their gizzard and helps them digest their food.