How should you repot a plant?

Question

I'm not sure what kind of tree I have but the trunk looks like it is braided. and has Small leaves. The roots are growing out of the bottom of the pot it is in and I don't want to make the tree go in to shock. I know it need to be replanted can you help me?

Answer 1

I have had good luck with this technique - hope it helps......

First, it's important to pick the right pot for the plant. Believe it or not, you don't want to go too big, generally speaking - you should only go up one or two sizes from the current pot.

To get the current plant out of its pot, gently both the sides and bottom of the plant to loosen it up. Make sure the new pot has sufficient drainage either by using rocks or parts of a broken pot in the bottom on the new pot (this will prevent the plant from sitting in water if it's over watered). Then place about an inch of new potting mix in the bottom of the pot and place the new plant in its new pot - making sure the top of the soil line in the new pot is about the same as the old one and then firmly put new potting mix around the voids until the pot is full - making sure to water sufficiently. Even though it's a great idea to loosen or 'tease' the roots after taking the plant from the old pot, just remember that the more you tease them, the greater risk of shock and some plants don't recover well for such shock.

Now here's the best hint of all, place the new pot and plant in the same location as the old one. The plant is already getting used to it's new home, it sure doesn't need to get adjusted to a new light source that's greater or lesser than before.

Just a quick FYI - my gardening guide suggests that once in shock, it usually takes a plant anywhere from 4 - 8 weeks to gain it's strength and vigor back.

Hopefully the plant will act like it's never been disturbed and will continue to thrive even better than before.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

Re potting is an on- going task in any established garden,with practice every gardener develops his / her own style 'time tested methods add to the gardners confidence,not much to be added to the excellent advise already given,i prepare the new pot with crock for drainage & keep the new soil ready so that minimum time is wasted ,.loosen the soil by tapping all around the pot,bottom as well,Then turn the pot upside down in your hand & tap the margin on an elevated hard surface ,the plant will readily drop into your hand.Since you are new to repotting only trim a few superficial roots & work away a minimum of old soil.You are then ready to repot,cover the crock bits at the bottom of the pot with few inches of new soil,lay the plant in,holding upright pour soil all around,tap to settle the soil,then water gently,till water flows freely through drainage holes.I place the pot in a shady spot,till i am sure it is vigorous ,then i move in stages to more sunny spots until it can take up it's original spot in the garden.

Answer 3

Any time you re-pot a plant it goes through some kind of shock. But you can minimize that by gently tapping all around the pot, even if you break it, and loosening the root ball until you can remove it from the pot. After you get it out of the old pot, you need to gentle loosen the root ball. As long as you don't break the main root or tap root, the smaller, hairy root ends should be loosened and placed in the pot no bigger than two to three inches larger than the root ball itself with fresh potting mixture. I would wait a couple of weeks before fertilizing your plant. It will lessen shock and your plant will get more than enough nutrients from the new potting mix. Go to HGTV and they have many shows that cover this. Good luck.