Today was "dunk day" and I got inspired to re-pot a couple of my little up-and-comers. This one, Lc.Renate has really wound itself up inside the pot, as well as putting lots of new roots out sideways into the air. I'm stumped as to what to do here.
Do I unwind all the wound up ones, trim and clean then stuff every root into the new pot? I'm really worried to break off a lot of healthy roots if I do that. The roots are very fragile.
OR should I just hose it off, trim, and clean out as much old medium as I can, add cinnamon and stuff it as is into the new pot with new medium? Do I bend the aerial roots down into the pot, too? If I don't I'm going to have to use a much bigger pot or just let them wave about as they have been. (this is hard for me, being a 'traditional' gardener my instinct is to cover roots . . . )
Second issue, I broke a pot as I was moving everybody around, and found out that my terracotta pots seem to not be made entirely of terracotta any more! Looks like they're made of some grey clay, then dipped into something that makes the outside surfaces look like terracotta. Not really a big concern but, a bit of a cheat at least! Any thoughts?? The lower piece in the pic is a "real" terracotta piece.