Repotting By Jena Luthovski At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Most plants that require repotting can be easily removed from the container. This is usually done if it is held upside-down, while knocking the lip of the container directly on the edge of a table. If you hold your hand over the plant material, straddling the plant between the fore and middle fingers, this can be achieved.

If the plant has become root-bound, it will be essential to cut and unwind any roots that circle the plant, or else the roots will never develop naturally. If the old plant material surface has accumulated salts, the top layer should be removed.

Potting material should be moistened before repotting begins. To repot, put some of the plant material in the bottom of the new pot, which should be two to four inches larger in diameter than your old pot. Then, you can set the root ball in the middle of the new plant material. Fill the plant material around the sides between the root ball and the pot. Do not add plant material above the initial level on the root ball, except for if the roots are exposed or it has been obligatory to remove some of the surface plant material. Next, you can gently press or pack the plant material with your fingers. After watering and settling, the plant material level should be amply below the level of the pot to leave one-half to an even inch or more headroom – this of course depending on the size of the container. The headroom is the space between the plant material level and the top of the gardening pot that allows for watering a plant. If not enough headroom, then water may spill over the top of the rim when watering. Conversely, with too much headroom, the volume of plant material has not been optimized and over-watering may possibly occur.

It is important to keep plants neat and clean through routine grooming. This not only betters the appearance of plants, but diminishes the incidence of insects and disease problems. Remove all dried flowers, dying leaves and dead branches. You can keep leaves dust-free by cleansing plants with temperate water and gentle true soap. It’s advisable to refrain from detergent which can cause damage to buds and leaves. Then, you can cover pot to thwart soap from entering the soil. If tips of leaves become dry and brown, then trim them off precisely with razor-sharp scissors.

Humidity can be amplified by setting plants on trays lined with small pebbles and filled with clean water to about one half inch of the pot base. If you heat with wood, it’s good to keep a pot of water on the stove.

Sometimes a whole branch or part of a plant should be detached for the sake of facade. Disbudding is the elimination of specific flower buds either to acquire larger blooms from a few select buds or to thwart blooming of a very young plant or recently rooted cutting that should not resemble the physical drain of blossoming early.

Adding fertilizer to the dry root ball burns the roots, killing or damaging the plant, so water dry houseplants prior to fertilizing. It’s wise to never fertilize wilted plants. It's better to water plants a couple of hours prior to fertilizing. Houseplants can be fertilized beginning in the spring, and more regularly with the commencement of spring and new growth. Finally, keep winter fertilization of most houseplants to an absolute minimum as plant cultivation is extremely slow and the added nutrients pressure the plant.

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