Should I repot my turtles? She’s starting to bald on half the pot. I’ve found a shallow terracotta pot (2” deep; 5” wide) that I want to put her in but she’s currently in a 2.5” nursery pot. She’s my fave so I wanna do right by her. She doesn’t hang (yet) she’s always on this table and I only pick her up gently to bottom water her.
Mine did something similar. I filled in the bald spot with 6” cuttings popped directly into the soil. They rooted nicely and after a while filled in the pot. This summer was hard on mine so I’ll be doing this again soon.
4 likes Oh good yours filled in nicely after propping! You’re a plant master so of course yours would! It sounds like they’re kind of like a tradescantia nanouck that props just in moist soil.
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I have both turtles and hearts. And the ho's just bald 😆 🤣 the only way to stop it, kinda, is to continually rotate. But even with my hanging ones, it's not a sure fix. Just nip off a few strings. Cut them at the internodes, and push them into the bald spot dirt. They'll root in no time and fill it up. You can also do the sane thing with tubers from older plants. I'll take some pics
3 likes Cut like this
Then just press them down in. You can also just sprinkle a bit of dirt on top of each node. Just don't completely cover. Then I just mist to water them. So they don't get floated out of the soil
1 like You can see the one top right has a tiny tuber starting, so it should root really well.
Ooooh ok cool that seems super simple. Can I do this when I up pot them? It sounds like I’ll have a lot of extra room around the edges.
0 likes Yup, you can do it any time really. When repotting, whenever it needs, a trim, or whenever you see any bare spots starting. With my hanging string of turtles, I rotate the pot everytime I water.
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Getting a shallow pot isn’t a bad idea for string of turtles. My only concern would be the width. Try placing it in the new pot to see how big of a width difference it’ll actually be, and remember that by moving to a shallower pot, you’ll have to make sure there’s enough room for the roots to grow and enough room for them to be covered by soil, especially in the colder months to come. Hope this helps!
0 likes I was reading/hearing they have a shallow and delicate root system so they do better in a shallow pot but the only one I found was a 5” which I know I should be looking for a 3-4” one but they’re so hard to find. It’s the same depth as its current pot but muuuuch wider
I think I’d hold off on putting one in a pot that wide unless you plan on adding more than one string of turtles plant into the pot with it. Otherwise, especially because of the shallow root system, you could risk overwatering it and leaving it in damp soil for too long if you have to fill the pot around it with so much more soil. For the time being, it should be fine in the current pot. It looks quite happy currently 😊 so I think you can hold off on repotting it until spring unless it’s become rootbound or shown it needs new space. Repotting can also be a bit riskier in the colder months, so it might be better to hold off on doing so until it’s necessary. hope this helps!
1 like If you want to make it fuller at the top, Wolfen’s tips will certainly help, or you can wrap some of the strings around the top and pin them into the soil with a bobby pin, allowing it to look fuller. Propagating can help it still get fuller without repotting, rather than risk shocking the plant with a repot
0 likes Good thinking I def don’t want to over water her. Maybe I’ll get some more turtles in the sprint time and just prop some to fill in her bald side. Hopefully by then I can find a smaller terracotta pot that’s more appropriate width….. or just more turtles!!! 🤣
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