Repotting

I have been getting few (underline few :D) emails asking me to write a post about repotting a plant. Well, I am no expert at this, but still here, I wish to share how I do it. Experts out there, please correct me if I go wrong somewhere. :D

I repotted a Betel vine and a Jasmine Creeper and also a Golden Champaca and Tuberose. The impulsive shopper in me bought the last three plants from my visit to Horticultural Society (not as great as the name suggests, but I guess something is better than nothing) on Saturday. I thought I'd take photos as I pot the plants up to those who find it a dreadful task.

This post is especially dedicated to my Teacher (Mrs Eswari Natarajan) who recently took interest in gardening after visiting my blog. I was flattered!

The other gemini: Stop boasting and on to the post!

Ahem! :D Don't mind him, he thinks I'm a dumbo.

I have heard people saying that their plants died after they potted up the plants that they bought from the nursery and many dread the thought of repotting, fearing that they would injure the plant, but it is important that potted plants are repotted at least once in two or three years or every other year for plants that grow really fast.

About the nursery-bought plants, most of the times the soil is caked (at least in this part of India) and so thick that you can't even loosen the soil, so people stick the cylindrical block right into the soil, which doesn't help the roots to spread and the plant dies.

Due to my coco peat conversion, I had to completely remove all the soil (it really was a task, trying to free the soil from the roots!), except the soil that stuck to the base.

Okay, on to the process:

1. Pot Selection: If repotting a plant, always choose a pot slightly bigger than its previous home as same applies for the plants bought from nursery.

2. I like to wash my pots before re-using it and I'd recommend the same to you. Cover the drain holes of the pot with crock pieces or even a mesh would do - Anything that prevents soil from blocking the hole and creates drainage problems.

3. Ready your potting mix. I used 60% Coco peat + 30% Sand + 5-10% Compost. Fill half of the pot with the potting mix.

4. a) Remove the plant from the pot and cut away the roots that weave themselves around the pot. I'll show how to do this in my next post as I forgot to take pictures of my Betel vine and morever the vine wasn't pot-bound as I potted it only two months ago. Since I wanted to get rid of all the soil, I gently free almost 95% of soil from the roots.

b) If potting a nursery-bought plant, first make three cuts along the circumference of the plastic

and peel it like you'd do a banana to the bottom and then separate if from the soil. Most of the times, you'd see the plants root penetrating the plastic and peeping out. If this is the case do NOT pull the plastic away, because most definitely the bottom half of the cylindrical soil block would come off! Which means, you have another half of the root with the plastic. You DON'T want this to happen as I myself have done this in the beginning.

Cup the bottom with the palm of your hand and squeeze it so that the soil becomes loose. If the cylinder is big, loosen the soil at the bottom (along with the plastic) between your thumb and fingers. Now slowly remove the peeled plastic away.

5. a) After trimming the pot-bound roots, you'd have to loosen the soil around.
   * An important note here: If you by accident cut quite an amount of roots, don't panic. You have the situation under control still. Just trim the plant on the top to compensate the root loss. Simple!

b) Squeeze the cylindrical block of your nursery-bought plant to loosen the soil. I removed all the soil except the the one sticking to the roots (If you're doing this, be careful not to break off the thick roots, thin minor roots are okay though).

6. Now place the plant over the soil and see how much more you'd need to fill up. Mark the level with a chalk or visually. Allow a two-inch (at least one-inch) space from the rim of the pot. AS a general rule, make sure that you pot the plant up to the level of soil that it was growing in nursery or in its previous home. This is important because covering the part of plant that was above the soil would rot the plant!

7. Now keep the plant aside and fill the pot upto the marked level.

8. Place the plant on the soil and gentle press its roots into the soil and hold it in place. Now start filling the space around with the soil upto two inches below the rim of the pot.

In case of some creepers like this betel vine, you don't have to worry about planting it deeper than it was, because it doesn't suffer root rot. Now, if your roots are long like this Vine. Spread it around the pot and holding it with your fingers, fill the soil.

Sometimes, you'd see that in creepers or shrubs, a larger part of the stem is bare and only the tip has shoots. You might want to bend it and bury it into the soil.

This would give you an extra plant few months later. Once you start seeing new growth, you can cut the arch (wait until the new growth grows a bit) and repot the other half, plant it in the ground, or if you're too-very-good-hearted, share it with your friends or neighbors.

What we did just now is ground layering! Most of the times you'd want to stake the layered branch and even place a brick or a heavy object above the ground to prevent the branch from springing up.

While doing this, I accidentally broke the stem of my Jasmine, but you see that a thin tissue is still holding the two pieces together. Most of the times, you'd see that the plant would recuperate from this. If you have a root hormone powder, you might want to apply it to the broken section.

9. I like to add the fertilizer a inch below the surface of soil and I mixed it with soil an inch below before filling up. Make sure that you add the fertilizer or Plant food at least an inch or two away from the roots to avoid damage.

I added Flower food to this nursery-bought Jasmine and Michelia in addition to the fertilizer.

Add stakes or mesh for the creeper and tie the vines using a twine to them.

10. Now water the pot copiously and make sure it drains from the hole(s) from the bottom.

11. If your plant is tall and fragile, consider staking it until its roots settle themselves.

Doesn't it sound simple? Well, for beginners it might not, but believe me, once you do two or three, you'd find it easy. Have fun repotting and propagating! Give your plants a new home!