john_ny

Sometime, last year, I found the mother plant, in a basjoo mat, broken off. Part of the surface, at the break, was dark, and part light colored, so it looked like it had been patially broken, previously, (dark areas, on diagram) and completely broken, when I discovered it.
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I cut the stem off at about a foot, and plopped it in a pot. There were no roots. The center of the stem pushed out about an inch, and then stopped. In the fall, it went in the basement, with several other plants. It just sat there, doing nothing, for a long time. Several weeks ago, I noticed the stem had turned brown, and fallen over, but there was a nice pup in the pot.
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In the fall, the remaining stems (4 pups) in the mat were wrapped, and covered with leaves and a tarp. When I uncovered, a few weeks ago, I saw that all the pups were green, all the way to the tops.
Actually, they were more yellow, due to lack of light.
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They have, since, greened up nicely. I have one with 4½ feet of p-stem, 2 at 3 feet, and one that I accidentally broke off, while uncovering, at about 18 inches. There are also two new little pups of a couple of inches.
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When I first uncovered, we had a couple of 90° days, but then it got cooler again, mostly in the 50s or 60s, so growth has been slow, but steady.
In the picture, #1 is the one I broke off; #2 is the 4½ footer; #s 3 & 4 are the 3 footers; #s 5 & 6 are the new ones.

Now to my question.
I would like to leave #4 where it is, and remove and pot up the rest. I have never done this before. Previously, I have only separated pups from potted plants, where I would take the whole thing out of the pot, and brush away some of the potting material until I could see where to cut. I would like to get the smaller plants potted, but still have the least setback for the remining one. How should I go about this? Should I dig the whole thing up, cut, and replant, or should I try to pull some of the soil away, so I can see where to cut? These plants first sprouted at least a year, maybe two, ago, so I would assume they have a fairly good amount of their own roots.

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John

john_ny

By the way, the white thing lying on the ground, between the plants, is a 12½ inch ruler.

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John

just j

is #2 the mother plant that one looks the biggest from the picture maybe leave that one in where it is since its in the middle the rest will be easyer to cut appart and u can leave more root on the plants this way i just take my shovel with a sharp tip and stick it right between them and jump on it and take a cunk of the soil out with them so all the little roots dont get hurt then they wont get to stressed out

john_ny

Thanks for your reply. I goofed when I asked the question; I want to leave the 4 ft.+ one, and wrote #4, when #2 is actually the 4½ footer that I want to leave. It is the biggest of the pups, but is not the mother plant. As I said in the beginning of my post, the mother plant was broken off.
I also found a picture from 2007, and the pups were there then, so they are at least 2 years old.

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John

Michael_Andrew

You have a lot of separation between plants there so it shouldn't be difficult. I'm with just_j just put a shovel between them and dig em out. Number 5 and 6 are kinda small so you may want to keep them with the bigger plant till they get some size. But 5 is kinda out there. Who does he belong too?

Good Luck

Michael.

john_ny

Thanks, folks! This is pretty much what I figured I'd do. #5 is only about 6 inches from #3. (The ruler, in the middle, is 12½ inches) That is who I would try to keep it with. I'll put my square ended spade on the grinder in the morning, and get a nice sharp edge on it.

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John