Potting your plants

How to pot your plants

Correct potting and timely transplanting mean extra profits. You’ll save time and effort if you first assemble pots, drainage material (pottery chips), soil, and plants on your potting bench. Use only clean pots. If you have new clay pots, soak them in water for several hours prior to potting so they will not draw moisture from the soil. New plastic pots need no washing. Save broken pots and use the pieces (”crocks”) for drainage material.

Repotting

When repotting plants that have outgrown containers, shift them to pots one or at most two sizes larger. Place an arched piece of crock over the drainage hole. For a 4-inch pot, add about a % inch layer of gravel or tiny crock chips. For smaller pots, decrease the amount of drainage material; increase it for larger pots.

To remove a plant from a pot, turn it upside down. Rest it on your left hand, with your finger tips straddling the plant’s stem and supporting the soil. Use your right hand to hold the inverted pot steady. Rap the pot edge against a table or bench and let the plant slip out of the pot. Before repotting, remove old drainage material which may cling to the bottom of the root ball. If this seems hard, with your hands or a stick remove some of the old soil before replanting.

Put a small amount of soil above the drainage material in the new pot, place the plant, and fill in the space around the root ball with fresh soil. Leave at least inch of space between pot rim and soil level in small pots, up to 1 inch of space in larger pots, so plants can receive enough water at one time. Finish by rapping the bottom of the pot on the bench to firm the soil. If you are transplanting large plants, mature amaryllis or philodendron, center the plant above the drainage material, fill in the sides with soil, and tamp it as you fill. Do this with your fingers or a rounded stick.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

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