How to Repot a Stuck Spiny Succulent Amazing tips

My idea for my latest YouTube video was to show you how to use tweezers and kitchen tongs to repot a spiny succulent without touching it. For my overgrown corn-cob euphorbia, I picked an art pot with the perfect size, color and pattern. But after I tried unsuccessfully to slide the spiky succulent out of its old pot, I discovered (yikes!) it was firmly stuck.

How to extract it without harming it...or myself? Well! What a great opportunity to show you how to repot a stuck spiny succulent---a tricky, not uncommon problem. (Btw, in the video it sounds like I'm damaging my table, but it's fine.)

How to repot a stuck spiny succulent: Video stills

I try to push the root ball upward through the hole in the bottom of the pot

 

I use my long-handle tweezers as a lever

 

I hold the root ball with kitchen tongs.

 

Yay! Got it repotted!

 

Here's the newly repotted euphorbia on my deck.  I love how the pot's design repeats the texture and shape of the plant.

 

After several months in its new pot, the euphorbia's tips pinked-up beautifully.

Tools and Materials

• Pot and spiny succulent
• Potting soil
• Trowel (hand shovel)
• Long-handle tweezers
• Kitchen tongs
• Clippers
• Optional: Turntable, pebble topdressing, paper towel, cheap paintbrush, pumice

Method

Assemble tools and materials. Tidy and prune the plant. Use long-handle tweezers to remove debris from its center. Use kitchen tongs to grasp and pull the plant out of the old pot. If it won't come out, check to see if roots are growing out the pot hole. If so, snip them off. If the plant still won't come out, insert a pointed object (like a pencil, chopstick or long-handle tweezers) into the hole and push up. (In the video I use some force to do this, pounding the bottom of the tweezers on the table.)

If the root ball is still stuck, insert tweezers into the pot at an angle, push down so they grasp the root ball, and raise them---root ball and all---by using the edge of the pot for leverage.

Once plant and root ball are out of the pot, use a soft paintbrush to remove remaining bits of dirt and debris. Add enough potting soil (I amended mine 25% with pumice) to the new pot so that the crown of the plant rests about an inch lower than the rim. Add more soil as needed to cover the root ball, pressing firmly to anchor it.

Conceal soil with topdressing. I used small rounded pebbles that repeat the pot's color and pattern. Water the plant to clean it and settle its roots. Place it where you'll enjoy it and it'll receive optimal light. After several months, my corn cob euphorbia's tips had turned pink. Beautiful!

Have questions or comments? I appreciate hearing from you. Please post them in the Comments section below.

Resources

Find succulents and top dressings online at Mountain Crest Gardens

The art pot used here is by Regina Fernandez of Port Town Pottery. She sells at Cactus & Succulent Society sales throughout Southern CA. Connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.

Watch the new video: "How to Repot a Stuck Spiny Succulent" on YouTube (5:47)

Watch the video

Perfect Succulent Art-Pot Pairings

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”] Two basic design principles will help you create perfect succulent art-pot pairings. From my book, Succulent Container Gardens: “Contrast and repetition are the two most important design elements. When these are used effectively, the results are remarkable. Contrast jolts and engages; repetition comforts and soothes…Repetition hearkens back…

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How to Create a Cactus Curio Box

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My Must-Have Garden Tools for Spiny Succulents

The tools I use when working with spiky, spiny succulents include 12-inch tweezers, kitchen tongs, artist’s brush, chopstick, scissors, metal teaspoon, inexpensive garden gloves, and duct tape.

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Late Summer Succulent Care: Six Essentials Amazing tips

These six late-summer care essentials for succulents come from my own experience with growing hundreds of varieties over decades. In my inland Southern CA garden, late summer heat can do as much damage as midwinter frosts. Below is what I do routinely every year. Modify my suggestions according to your own climate and region.

1. Shade any smooth-leaved succulents that are not from the desert Southwest

Unless you live in a mild, maritime location, those that I call "the pretty little ones" need protection from scorching summer sun. Ideally they'll get several hours of early morning or late afternoon sun, and bright or dappled shade the rest of the day. (See how I define Types of Shade.) If need be, throw a sheet or shade cloth over exposed aeoniums, aloes, echeverias, kalanchoes, and the like.

2. Protect young desert plants

When established, most cacti, yuccas, agaves and other succulents native to Mexico and the Southwest sail through summer. However even in their native habitats, young cacti grow beneath "nurse plants" that shelter them from harsh conditions.

Above: View from my deck during a mid-August heat wave that sent temps into the triple digits. I'm located midway between ocean and desert. When temps rise into the 90s in late summer, thunderheads appear in the eastern sky. Occasionally the storms drift this way and we see flashes of lightning and may even get rain.

3. Give cold-climate succulents preferential treatment

Rock-garden plants such as sempervivums (hens-and-chicks) and sedums (stonecrops) thrive in the northern and eastern US and in Europe. Farther south, these can go downhill when temperatures rise above 80 degrees F. Keep them shaded and cool. Exceptions are sedums (and Sedum crosses such as graptosedums) that have fat, thumb-sized leaves and that turn vivid shades of red and orange.

4. Monitor soil moisture

Soil that goes bone dry may not kill thick-leaved and -trunked succulents, but if fine root filaments desiccate, growth will slow or cease. In pots you can test soil moisture by inserting a chopstick; if soil clings, it's moist.

5. Soak plants before leaving town

Generally if other conditions are met, succulents won't miss you if you water them well before you leave, then again when you return. As an extra precaution in case temperatures rise significantly while you're gone, move potted succulents into shade.

6. Don't stress over your succulents

Gardening is a process, and sometimes the only way to know what will do well is to lose a few plants. Weather extremes lead to valuable lessons. Consider any casualties as annuals, and fill gaps when weather cools.

Related info on this site

Summer Care for Succulents: Heat and Sun Concerns

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Agaves Handle Summer Heat

Late summer is when tough succulents really shine. Large agaves handle summer heat, and are unfazed by harsh sun, high temps and lack of rain. Their statuesque, fountainlike forms lend a sculptural element to any landscape, and contrast beautifully with fine-textured ornamentals. They also make good firebreak plants and security fences. With the exception of a few…

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Agave Dermatitis: How bad is agave sap? Amazing tips

You're already wary of poison oak, cactus glochids and the milky sap of euphorbias. Now add agave sap to the list. In susceptible individuals, it causes the skin condition "agave dermatitis."

Case in point: I assumed my ex (my then-husband) was exaggerating when he said his skin itched like crazy. I mean, how bad can agave sap be? Don't they make syrup and tequila out of it? You never hear about agaves being toxic! While attempting to remove an overly large century plant (Agave americana), he didn't don protective clothing. It was a hot day, and he took off his shirt. That was 40+ years ago. (Yeah, I owe him an apology.)

Chopped up agave

As recently as the fall of '18, I was unaware of the dangers of agave sap. Workers came to remove Big Blue, an Agave americana in my garden that had died after flowering. (See the video.)  They wore long-sleeves, trousers, sunglasses and hats. And they used a chain saw, which I've since learned is unwise, because it makes bits of the plant fly. Fortunately Big Blue was no longer juicy. Living agaves, though fibrous, contain much more sap.

Agave americana bloom and removal video

With century plants getting larger than homeowners anticipated, throughout Southern CA, and inevitably dying after flowering, such removals are becoming commonplace.

Last year, without hiring help, I dealt with another big agave that bloomed. You know how I advise not bothering to cut off agave bloom stalks? I routinely say, "You might as well enjoy the show, the plant will die regardless." Well, find out why you should cut it off, on this site's Agave page.

Why is "agave dermatitis" unknown?

I predict it won't be for long. My ex merely itched. Greg M., who sent me an email earlier this week, said his skin felt like it was on fire. In Greg's case, the skin turned red and blistered. According to a dermatology site for MDs, agave sap can cause "CICD: Chemical Irritant Contact Dermatitis," which happens when oxalic acid crystals become embedded in the skin. The resulting "oxalism...may result in vascular damage." Another online source states that an estimated 30% of Mexico's tequila plantation workers experience agave dermatitis.

What to do?

I am not a medical practitioner. When in doubt, or if symptoms don't improve, contact your doctor or go to an urgent care clinic. Both my ex and Greg M. washed the sap off immediately, and both were fine. And just as you would do whenever considering contact with a potentially harmful substance, first do a patch test. The Mayo Clinic explains how.

Let me (and others) know

In the comments below, I'd be grateful if you'd share any experiences you've had with agave removal and sap exposure. Thanks!

Girl eating agave

P.S. Don't eat raw agave!

According to the Chongquing Times, "Zhang," 26, thought the agave leaf she was taking a bite out of was Aloe vera. She expected it to be bitter, but not that bitter. Her mouth and throat burned. Zhang is one of many Chinese vloggers who earn money from live-streaming their day-to-day activities. She cut short her video and rushed to a hospital, where they pumped her stomach. (You can't make these things up.) Btw, if Zhang vlogs a re-do, she'll likely discover that eating raw aloe isn't a good idea either---it's a strong laxative.

 

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