5 Things I Learned From Repotting My Giant ZZ Plant, (And How To Do It).
Repotting a ZZ Plant can be quite a process if your specimen is as big as mine, or bigger!
I am not going to lie and pretend it was an easy peasy, smooth process for me.
Not at all!
In-fact, it was quite stressful!
It doesn’t need to be that way though!
That’s why I am going to give you my feedback and step by step instructions on how to do it, so that you can be confident throughout the entire process!
(But before we start, here’s a little disclaimer to justify the stress associated with this experience: I am an anxious person by nature. Any new experience, especially when it involves something special and important to me, I tend to go a bit extreme with my emotions!!! My ZZ Plant is 13 years old at the time of writing. She’s older than my kids…I’m a “tad bit” attached to it, and I never went this radical with repotting it before!).
Despite the stress, I did learn a ton from this repotting experience!
For example; next time I’ll chug a glass of wine before tackling a plant project this big! 😱😜🍷
Actually, I learned more than that, (but I am sure that would help!), and in the end, I found the process rewarding!
I really can’t wait to share all my findings with you, so here we go!
Here I am standing in my ensuite floor…
Two plants for me to repot in one big pot and keep, and three plants to individually repot and gift to my friends!
the 5 things I learned from this repotting process
One last thing before I share these 5 reeeeeally important things I learned from repotting my giant ZZ Plant.
This is not the first time I repot my 13 years old plant!!!
I’ve repotted this plant something like 4 or 5 times in 13 years, BUT, it has never been this big and dramatic before, and certainly, I have never divided it!
This ZZ Plant has been pulled out from a 16″ diameter pot, just so you have a better understanding of its scale!
If you want to learn more about ZZ Plant Care and how incredibly low maintenance these plants are, check out my article on 6 Reasons Why You Need a ZZ Plant in Your Home and Office!
1. it takes time, (like the whole morning!)
Give yourself time, a lot of time.
Don’t rush through the process and enjoy the experience!
To give you a frame of reference, it took me 3 hours, (including the researching part, where I watched two Youtube videos, the working area preparation and tool gathering, the whole dividing and repotting process, and cleaning up).
2. it takes muscles, (you need a helping hand!)
I thought I only needed help to move the massive plant and to pull it out of its pot…
Not the case. You are pretty much stuck in a pile of dirt, so if you have forgotten anything, or need something, you need someone to help you.
You will also need help holding the stems in place during the repotting process.
The divided tall stems will tend to fall all over the place as you are trying to add dirt to the pot!
3. It's not about repotting. It's about dividing your zz
My initial intention was to give my ZZ Plant a new, bigger pot as it was growing bigger and its tall stems were falling all over the place.
I started learning about dividing before repotting during my research, but I was still not convinced I wanted to divide my precious 13 years old plant!
By the time I pulled my ZZ Plant out of its pot and realized its roots weren’t at all crammed in there, I definitely understood that dividing was what my plant needed.
My ZZ Plant was more crowded above the soil level than under.
That’s because there were a bunch of stems I had pruned in the past taking so much space.
Another great aspect of this dividing and repotting ZZ plant process was the opportunity to remove all these cut off stems!
4. ZZ is easier to divide (by hand) than I thought
I was convinced I would have found a tangled mess of roots inside that pot, but I actually didn’t! I mean, the roots were tangled up, but they were actually quite easy to pull apart than I had anticipated!
ZZ Plant roots are fairly large and thick making it easy to untangle.
I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to naturally part the one plant into different plants.
As you gently loosen up the soil and roots, the division will happen spontaneously and naturally, unless your plant is really pot bound and the soil is extremely dry.
5. it requires multiple large pots and lots of soil!
I knew this before getting into it because I watched the Youtube videos during my research, but I was not counting on dividing my ZZ Plant….
How foolish of me!
Please trust me on this!
Even if you don’t think you are going to divide your plant, prepare 4 or 5 large pots just in case.
Remember, you will be stuck in a pile of dirt!!!
step by step dividing and repotting a giant zz plant
I thoroughly recorded and visually documented, (whenever possible!!) every step of this dividing and repotting ZZ Plant process to make it easy for you to understand and follow.
1. find a large floor space
I really mean it; find a large floor space where you can spread your tools, your ZZ Plant and work on it!
I used our Ensuite floor as it is fairly big, it has a hard surface floor easy to clean, (even though I covered the floor with a large tarp), and it’s on the same floor where my giant ZZ Plant is!!
So pardon the pictures of our bathroom!! I avoided including the toilet in as many shots as possible!!
2. protect / cover your floor
Luckily, my husband has a few tarps!
If you don’t have any tarps, you can use old bedding sheets, or even purchase plastic drop sheets used for painting rooms.
Choose whatever works best for you and your space, as long as you protect your floor!
It’s gonna be messy!!!
3. gather all tools and supplies
You are going to be stuck in this area for a while, and it is going to be quite dirty!
I highly recommend you gather all your tools and supplies even before you move your ZZ Plant into the space, so that you don’t have to figure out how to clean yourself out to go get something you forgot, or need during this process.
Here’s what you’ll need to divide and repot your giant ZZ Plant:
- Fresh soil, (ideally cactus and succulent mix), a large bag. I had a 12Kg/26lbs bag!
- Perlite to add to your soil to increase its drainage properties.
- Hand trowel. I like this one because it holds a lot of soil.
- Scissors, (to cut open soil and perlite bags, and to cut velcro tape)
- Sharp and clean hand saw, (in case you can’t divide the roots by hand)
- Velcro tape, (to tape the long and loose ZZ stems together once repotted)
- 4 or 5 Pots for your divided plants, (make sure they all have drainage holes)
- Saucers for each pot
- 2 large buckets, (I used 4 Litres / 1 gallon of ice cream buckets) to mix soil.
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4. find a partner to move your giant zz
As mentioned before in my list of 5 things I learned from repotting and dividing a giant ZZ Plant, you can’t do it solo.
You have to have a partner not only to help you move and pull your ZZ Plant out of its pot, but also to help you hold the new divided stems in place while filling the pots with soil.
Ideally, your partner needs to be strong, patient and gentle all at the same time! 😂
I picked my husband! (I am sure he loved the experience…)
5. move your zz to the working area
This is where the process really begins!
Ready?
Let’s do this!
With the help of your strong, patient and gentle partner, move your giant ZZ Plant to the working area.
Set it down straight.
Take a break.
Deep breath in.
6. gently lay zz on its side, (still in its pot)
Now, the gentlest one of you hold the stems, while the other will slowly tip the pot to its side, until the plant is lying on its side.
7. gently pull zz out of its pot
This part may take a long time depending on the type of container you are dealing with and how crammed your ZZ Plant roots and tubers are inside of it.
This is also a delicate part of the process, as you may need to pull the stems at the same time as you are shaking the rootball out of its pot.
You don’t want to pull too hard and rip the stems or damage the roots.
My giant ZZ Plant was inside a 16″ diameter plastic pot, so it was fairly easy to put pressure around the walls of the pot to get the soil and roots loose and gently pull the stems out while shaking the pot out.
However, it is not uncommon to have to break terracotta or ceramic pots open with a hammer or having to dig along the perimeter of the pot with hands, or scraping tools to help the rootball out.
Whatever you do, be gentle and remember you need to maintain stems, tubers and roots as intact as possible.
8. analyze your zz rootball
Once the pot was removed I had multiple revelations!!
First of all I realized my plastic pot didn’t have any drainage holes, which left me pretty horrified!!!😱
It had been 3 years since I last repotted my ZZ Plant!
I know it has been 3 years because the last time I repotted this plant was a few months after we got our puppy Rufus.
Rufus wasn’t very nice to my ZZ Plant when he was a puppy, so I had to do some pruning, (hence all those stems cuts), and repotting.
I repotted it and placed it inside a nice decorative basket.
What happens when you place large and heavy pots inside decorative baskets?
You admire them a lot!😅
But you don’t see what’s going on inside those baskets!!
Especially when inside of it there is the most versatile and hard to kill plant on the planet!
The ZZ Plant is looking great, so why would I bother taking it out of its basket to checkout what’s going on in its pot, right???
3 years later I decide to repot my Giant ZZ Plant and find out that it was in a pot without drainage holes!!! After all the preaching I’ve been doing about the importance of drainage!!
Oh well, at least I am honest and I am sharing with you that I am not perfect and that I make mistakes too, like everyone else does. I try my best but I make mistakes, and that’s just fine!
Anyway, my ZZ is fine!
Over-watered with quite a few decaying roots, but fine!
I caught the issue just in time, (3 years later, but still in time!).
The second revelation was that my ZZ Plant didn’t need a bigger pot.
All the soil you see in the picture, shows that my ZZ Plant does not need a bigger pot for its roots. There is actually plenty of space for the roots to grow in.
My ZZ Plant needs some good roots cleaning and some fresh soil!
This is to show that repotting is not just for upsizing plants’ pots, it is mostly to inspect their roots and replace their soil.
Click here to learn more about the reasons behind repotting plants!
9. loosen up the soil from zz roots
Now that you’ve determined what you are dealing with, (whether your roots are really crammed with really dry soil , or the roots are somewhat loose with moist soil), it’s time to gently and slowly loosen up and untangle the ZZ Plant roots.
Start from the bottom, where the bottom of the pot was, and work your way up to the stems.
The farther you go with the removal of the soil and the untangling of the roots, you’ll start to notice the appearance of the ZZ Plant tubers.
The tubers are attached to the stems.
10. divide zz into different plants
The more I kept digging, the more I found surprises…
Not only I found hard layers of roots shaped to its previous pots, complete with some draining pebbles…I also found a piece of vinyl siding that must have been cut to shape one of its previous pots bottom?!?
Anyway, once I got to the top of the roots, into the tubers and the stems, it was surprisingly easy to divide my ZZ Plant into different plants.
You’ll notice that the more you untangle and loosen up roots and soil, the more your plant will start rolling out and laying flat onto the floor.
This will help you with the division process.
The division process is natural and based on tubers formation and the bunching up of the stems.
If you don’t experience this same natural division, your best option is to use the sharp knife you’ve gathered at the beginning of the process and cut through the roots with a clean cut!
11. count how many plants you've obtained
At the end of my roots untangling and division process I obtained five plants.
Four plants of pretty much the same size and a smaller one with only two small stems.
I took advantage of having exposed stems and roots to remove those unpleasant looking previously pruned stems.
I decided to keep two plants and repot them together in one 14″ diameter plastic pot, (with draining holes!!), and to gift the other three to my friends.
12. pre-mix soil
I repotted one plant at a time as I needed to mix the soil in several batches.
I created my own mix in each bucket by combining:
- 2 scoops of the existing soil
- 3 scoops of fresh soil
- 2 scoops of perlite
I was able to do that because I had quite a bit of existing soil. However, if your ZZ Plant was tightly packed inside its previous pot you may not have that much soil to use, or perhaps even none!
If that’s the case I recommend you combine the following:
- 1 scoop of existing soil
- 4 scoops of fresh soil
- 2 scoops of perlite
OR
- 5 scoops of fresh soil
- 2 scoops of perlite
I used 4 or 5 buckets per plant.
Each pot was 12″ or 14″ in diameter, but it really depends on how big your plants and containers are!
I used existing soil because it was recommended in the Youtube video I watched, (see reference at the end of the article). It is apparently beneficial to the plant to maintain some of its own micro-organisms from its old soil. It will make the plant feel like home again.
13. plant your zz(s)
Once you’ve verified that all the pots you’ve selected for your cuttings / divisions have drainage holes, you are ready to start repotting your ZZ Plants.
I assume that by now you have learned the importance of drainage holes in your plants’ pots!
This is when you’ll need your helping hands back!
You need your partner to help you hold the long ZZ stems in place for you while you fill the pots with soil.
These newly divided ZZ Plant stems will tend to fall all over the place as you try to add soil to your pots. You don’t want that to happen!
Ask for help!
14. Tape up your ZZ(s) for stability
As mentioned before, the newly repotted stems may have some stability issues.
This may be caused by the fact that they no longer have many other stems surrounding and supporting them.
These stems are tall because the plant is mature, and the older the plant is, the bigger and heavier the stems will become. It is only natural that they will require more support over time.
You may notice that some cuttings may even have issues standing straight inside the pot. This is because the size of their roots has significantly been reduced, and they need time to grow and develop bigger roots to fill-in the new pot and stabilize.
For this reason you need to help your new cuttings / divisions by providing some support.
In my case, I only needed to tape the stems together to keep them from falling.
I used Velcro Tape.
It’s green, which camouflages nicely with the stems, and it’s both sturdy enough to keep these thick stems together, and delicate enough to not damage the succulent stems.
In other circumstances, supporting sticks or poles are needed to keep the plant up straight in its pot.
Place a central support stick and fasten your stems to it with the use of Velcro tape.
15. water your zz(s)
Even though my ZZ Plant roots were plenty hydrated, I still watered all my cuttings /divisions.
I believe its is good for the plant to stabilize in its new soil and pot and for the soil to settle as well.
In your case, your ZZ Plant may need to be watered anyway, so don’t skip this part, even if you think your ZZ Plant doesn’t need any water.
If you planted your ZZ Plant in a draining pot, all the excess water will drain out anyway!
16. clean your zz(s) leaves
Since you’ve already invested so much time to improve the health of your ZZ Plant, why not go a little further, and give those beautiful leaves a clean?
Did you know that cleaning plants leaves is not only done for aesthetic purposes but to improve their photosynthesis efficacy?
Removing the layer of dust from houseplants’ leaves is extremely beneficial to the absorption of sunlight!
Click here for more on cleaning houseplants leaves, and for a home-made natural cleaning product recipe!
17. put your zz back in its place, and give yourself a pat on the back!
Now you can either get your partner to help you move your divided and repotted ZZ Plant back to its spot, or you can even try doing it yourself!
I was able to do it alone!
I reduced the pot size by 2″ in diameter and I significantly reduced the amount of heavy stems.
Your job is done!
Congratulations! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
18. gift your other zz(s)
This is really the best part!
Sharing the love for plants, especially your plants, the ones you’ve been growing with so much TLC for so many years with the people you love!
This picture is priceless to me!
There is so much meaning into it.
To you it may only be a friend of mine hugging one of my ZZ Plant cuttings.
To me it’s series of good events happening, and making my friend Dusty happy on his birthday!
The little stem you see in the pot is one of the cuttings coming from my epic ZZ Plant division.
The long stem you see in the same pot is a stem I have been rooting for over two years!
Yes, because my friend Dusty helped me move my giant ZZ Plant upstairs a couple of years ago. During the process he accidentally broke that same stem….
Instead of telling me he broke it, he put it under my sheets in bed!!! (What a jokester!).
So that night I put that stem in water to root, (for over two years, and it worked!), and I promised myself that one day I would have showed up at his door with that same stem in a pot!
And so I did, the day before his birthday!
I think he was happy!
He told me this was his very own first plant!
I hope the feedback I provided to you and these step by step instructions are going to be helpful throughout your ZZ plant repotting and dividing process.
I highly recommend you watch the following YouTube videos as they were really helpful to me!
I always do a lot of research before I take on new projects!
And I am glad you did the same by reading this blog article!!
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Hey Plant Loving Woman!
Are you a middle age mom?
Do you constantly feel overwhelmed and anxious?
Do you believe in the healing power of nature?
To reveal your #1 Personal Houseplant that best
helps you reduce your anxiety.
another great, informative article! Thank you!!
Thank you!!
Great job! I think I can do this!
Awesome!
Good luck and keep me posted!
Excellent article. Very thorough and informative. Thank you!
Very excellent article! I have two huge zzz’s that have never been reported.😥😥😥 14 years old. I have gotten courage from you and I am going to do it! I’m surprised that I haven’t killed them already! Just goes to show what a hardy resilient plant they are!