-
- Articles
Index : Container Plants & Patio Gardening
-
-
- 4. Repotting Cramped Container Plants - Top
- Potted plants, be they patio or house plants, need repotting from time to time. Cramped containers jammed with roots can adversely affect a plant’s health and vigor. Repotting to a slightly larger container gives roots room to grow and, as a result, stimulates new shoots, leafy growth and flowering.
The best time to repot plants is in the spring. With warming temperatures and increased sunlight, potted plants start a new cycle of growth. It’s at the beginning of this cycle when plants respond best to replanting!
To determine which of your plants are cramped for space and need repotting, slide a knife down the inside edge of the container. If it’s difficult to push the knife down and you encounter obstacles, those obstructions are crowded roots impinged against the pot wall.
As a rule, pot-bound plants can be difficult to remove from their containers. Sliding a knife down the inside edge of the pot, all the way around, will help separate the roots that are pressing into the pot. It also helps to allow the soil to dry slightly. As potting soil dries, it shrinks back from the pot edge, making extraction of the root ball easier. Just don’t let it dry too much or the plant will suffer!
Carefully remove the plant from it’s pot. Small pots can be turned upside down while holding one hand over the soil surface and allowing the root ball to slide out. Larger pots too heavy to hold up should be placed on their sides and the plants gently pulled out. Of course, the easiest way to remove a stubborn plant from it’s container is to simply break it off, or cut it off in the case of plastic pots.
Once the plant has been removed and the roots are exposed, prune away any large, finger-sized roots wrapping themselves around the outer edge of the root ball. Smaller roots should be pulled away from the outer edge of the root ball with a three-pronged garden fork. A table fork will do for smaller plants.
It’s important that the outer roots be pulled and loosened so that they begin growing out into the fresh soil of your new container immediately after transplanting. If in the process some of the roots pull off or break away, don’t worry, an abundance of new roots will grow to replace them.
A word of caution - don’t over pot! Choose a new container just slightly larger than the old one. Plants languish in pots too large for them! Even if ultimately the plant will need a bigger pot, step it up in stages.
As with all containers, place a filter over the drainage holes prior to potting to keep soil from washing out. The filter can be a piece of window screen, coffee filter or used sheet of fabric softener. Do not place a layer of gravel or any material other than potting soil in the bottom of the pot. So called drainage layers only interfere with drainage, not improve it!
As you fill around the root ball with fresh soil, tamp it down with your fingers to make sure the area between the root ball and the inside pot edge have no air pockets. Then after filling the container with potting soil, water to settle and thoroughly wet the soil.
“Those Pesky Insects” (Those Pesky Insects) will be the topic for this week’s garden demonstrations. They will be presented on
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona,
520-626-5161. - Updated: April 15, 2007
-
-
[e-Mail me
the Articles] - [Search
the Articles]
-
|
