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How To Split A Peace Lily – The 11 Steps Guide

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Peace lilies should be divided after a couple of years to keep them healthy, and it’s a terrific way to expand The collection of your indoor plants without having to buy more.

This article is a step-by-step guide on how to split a peace lily plants and improve their aesthetics by keeping them healthy once they’ve been divided.

Dividing peace lily plants is an excellent alternative because it prevents your home from becoming overrun with enormous pots and makes great gifts!

Plants with dark green leaves and pure white blossoms are known as peace lilies. Because they’re so easy to cultivate, they’re frequently given as presents and kept as houseplants.

Even easy-to-grow houseplants, on the other hand, have a drawback: they sometimes keep growing. It’s not uncommon to keep a peace lily in the same pot for years with a little luck and understanding.

It will eventually grow too large and begin to crowd itself, at which point it will need to be repotted or divided.

How To Split A Peace Lily
via Reddit

When is the Right Time to Split Peace Lilies

Peace lilies (scientific name: Spathiphyllum) can live peacefully and happily for many years in the same pot, but they will ultimately outgrow it. When the following events occur, you’ll know it’s time to split peace lily plant:

  • Several crowns may be seen in the container.
  • The plant is producing fewer flowers or no flowers at all.
  • After watering, the earth dries out soon.
  • The roots begin to develop from the pot’s bottom.

Note: Although Peace lilies can be separated at any time of year, it’s better to avoid doing it in extremely cold or hot weather to avoid stressing the plant.

Things You Need

  • Peace lily plant that has been overgrown
  • Knife
  • Newspaper
  • Sharp scissors
  • Potting Soil (Good Quality)
  • New Pots
  • Screwdriver

 The 11 Steps Guide On How To Split A Peace Lily

Step 1: Cover your counter

  • This is a no-brainer that gets overlooked regularly.
  • Because unpotting the plant is a messy activity, it’s critical to cover your counter to prevent spills.

Step 2: Sterilize the Equipment

  • It is critical to sanitize the equipment before splitting a plant.
  • You may do this with an over-the-counter disinfectant or make your own at home.
  • This is a crucial step in either case because it protects the plant from bacterial infection and illness.

Step 3: Prepare Your Plant Before Splitting

  • Water your plant thoroughly a day ahead of splitting to make sure that it is in good shape before you begin separating it.
  • Check the number of crowns or offsets on the plant and make sure you arrange proper containers to pot them all.
  • If you don’t have enough offsets, you may add more to each pot.

Step 4: Loosen the Soil

  • Loosen the plant before you start tugging at it to get it out of the dirt.
  • Not only will this save time and effort, but it will also avoid damage.
  • Simply poke a screwdriver or a twig into the soil and wriggle it around a little to loosen it.
  • You’ll have to loosen the soil surrounding the pot as well.

Step 5: Start the Splitting Procedure (Grab and Pull)

  • By carefully twisting the plant to the side and gently squeezing it, you can remove it from the pot.
  • To extract the plant out of the pot if it is severely rooted, gently pull on the stem.
  • To tidy up the peace lily once it’s out of the pot, cut down any stalks or brown leaves at the plant’s base.

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Step 6: Dust The Roots

  • It’s critical to dust off the plant’s roots once it’s been removed from the soil.
  • Because the divide occurs at the roots, you’ll have a good view of the piece you’ll be working with.

Step 7: Spot the Crowns

  • Crowns aren’t visible from the outside.
  • To get a better look at them, you’ll have to dig up the plant.
  • A peace lily’s crowns are just divisions of the plant from the ground up.
  • These are miniature plants with a nodule-like structure that may easily be distinguished from a sapling.
  • They emerge from the main plant.
  • It will be easier to locate crowns once the roots have been cleaned.
  • Crown is a collection of mini-plants that must be separated.

Step 8: Separate the Crowns

  • Separate the crowns, which you may do by gently pulling the roots apart with your hands or cutting through the roots with a knife or scissors if the root ball is particularly tight.
  • Make sure each crown has a few roots and at least three leaves.

Step 9: Lay Them Aside

  • Instead of potting as soon as the crowns are trimmed, you can put them aside for now and focus on the mother plant.
  • After cutting the crowns, repot the mother plant before returning to the saplings.

Step 10: Plant them in the Pots

  • Plant the new and fresh plants in pots that are big enough for the roots and the plant.

Step 11: Water Them Properly and Provide Enough Light

  • Thoroughly water the new plants until the water flows out of the bottom of the pot. To prevent making a mess, do this outside or in the bathtub.
  • Allow the plants to get used to their new containers and place them in a cool, indirect light environment.
  • After splitting peace lilies, you may observe the leaves are limped and droopy over the course of a few days after repotting due to transplant shock.
  • They’ll perk back up in no time if you keep the soil moist.

The number of times a single peace lily can be split has sparked debate on discussion forums. The number of crowns visible when the plant is removed from the pot determines this. This plant can be split three to five times if there are three to five crowns.


Final Remarks

Keeping a peace lily healthy is possible. But, as with most houseplants, it requires a little commitment and effort on your part to do so.

Even if this doesn’t appear to be a difficult plant to grow from the perspective of someone who isn’t knowledgeable about plants, they’re not as easy as you might think.

If you don’t care for it properly, such as neglecting to water it or exposing it to harsh light, it can suffer irreversible damage. There’s nothing worse than watching a beloved plant deteriorate and die due to your negligence or lack of concern.

The rewards for proper care are more than worth the effort expended on caring for the peace lily. Beginners should know care instructions before buying an expensive plant like this.

Additionally, if you’re planting offsets in pots, make sure the pot is deep enough to accommodate roots. When repotting plants potted in plastic containers, cut away the container when possible by scoring it with a knife and gently pulling it off.

The process of dividing a peace lily was described in this article. The procedure is simple and suitable for both rookie and experienced gardeners.

Along with knowing how to divide a peace lily, it’s also crucial to know when to split one and how to care for one once it’s been split.

Make sure to water the sapling or pups periodically once you’ve repotted them. You’ll also need to fertilize the plant now and again to ensure that it gets the nutrients it needs to thrive.