Roots, Repotting, Up-potting and when to do it.

[VerdantGreen]

lol, too long @chilliwilli - must have been in there for 6-12 months.. and it is only a 1 litre pot !

 

[Three Berries]

Like grass, some mosses can simply be scraped up and replanted in a new location. You can either completely cover the desired area with the plant or space it apart and let it grow together. Another method is to shred a handful of green moss with one cup of buttermilk in a blender, then "paint" it on the soil, rocks or other surface where you hope it will spread.

How Moss Works

Money may not grow on trees. But moss does. How does this plant manage to carpet hard surfaces like rocks and sidewalks?

home.howstuffworks.com

 

[X15]

nice work showing with pics!

if I may add a tip I like to incorporate along with @VerdantGreen …
get yourself a 5gal bucket and fill it with the same h2o you water with, plus some of your favorite bacterium, and often if cut a fresh piece of aloe from the yard and squeeze some directly into the solution (maybe like a half tbsp). Grab a coconut from your nute stash and proceed to empty it’s contents into a container, add that coconut water to your bucket at like 15ml per gal. Keep things Room temp or as close to what the soil medium is at the time. Stir it up with your favorite wooden mixing tool. You can add an air stone if you’re really bored But don’t go overboard, the goal i adhere to is achieving good dispersion of the aloe and coconut water,, to keep things moving around (helps if you use powdered microbes n such). (I have used the same solution after 24hrs due to laziness and having a couple limbs I didnt want to give to the worms. clone away. No prob-lame-o)
often I add some Labs I’ve made or get you some Save a chik .

now dunk your kids root ball in that bucket of solution. You will be washing off soil so use your common or most common sense and dunk with caution lol.

compost What’s left in the bottom of the bucket. I’ve used large 15 gallon ice tubs for larger potted mothers, they can get heavy so be careful!

spread the good word!

 

[VerdantGreen]

thanks @X15 , that sounds like a good dunk for anyone with aloe growing around them and the time to make it..
you weren't clear about which plants you want us to dunk,
but i wouldn't recommend dunking 'naked' rootballs except if the plant was very rootbound.. if i dip plants then i leave them in their pots and lower them slowly in - and i wouldn't do it at all for any recently potted plants because some soil ingredients, such as perlite, float. I would dunk a plant in its pot of it had dried out too much and the soil needed re-wetting, or maybe if i had fungus gnats and was applying nematodes. Normally though rather than dunk, i tend to leave the pot in a tray of water maybe 1 inch deep for a couple of hours and let it soak up rather than dunk the whole rootball - less likely to cause problems imo.
I used half strength seaweed extract to water the rejuved mother plant after the process.
VG

 

[X15]

thanks @X15 , that sounds like a good dunk for anyone with aloe growing around them and the time to make it..
you weren't clear about which plants you want us to dunk,
but i wouldn't recommend dunking 'naked' rootballs except if the plant was very rootbound.. if i dip plants then i leave them in their pots and lower them slowly in - and i wouldn't do it at all for any recently potted plants because some soil ingredients, such as perlite, float. I would dunk a plant in its pot of it had dried out too much and the soil needed re-wetting, or maybe if i had fungus gnats and was applying nematodes. Normally though rather than dunk, i tend to leave the pot in a tray of water maybe 1 inch deep for a couple of hours and let it soak up rather than dunk the whole rootball - less likely to cause problems imo.
I used half strength seaweed extract to water the rejuved mother plant after the process.
VG

Simply dunking the root balls bare is a fantastic way to help loosen up the roots.. with out having to use your bare hands which roots don’t generally appreciate. This is mainly a case for a plant that has been in a pot for a long time and has less than par soil around its roots. a couple swift dunks will really untangle the roots. This is helpful if you have multiple plants you need to do at one time as the fresh soil will wick remaining moister from the dunk and give you time to get back around to them for their Final dose to even things out. The added bits that make up that solution will reduce some stress.
Most grocery stores these days sell aloe by the leaf, could use powdered I guess, I have only used fresh squeezed leaf tho.

 

[X15]

I suppose that method does seem a bit intimidating, guess it’s not necessary, just another tool for certain applications.

 

[VerdantGreen]

Thanks, yes i can see how it might help with that... but beyond a certain point of rootbinding, breaking the roots actually stimulates new growth and is helpful - but obviously that does take the plant a week or so to recover from.
VG

 

[Three Berries]

I use to do three repots per plant but quit. Now I plant into a small peat pot in the the final size pot but am very restrictive of watering so as not to saturate the soil. I just water around the outside of the smaller plant. Went 6 weeks before a full run off watering.

Last repot went too long.

 

[X15]

Yeah I’ve always been a proponent of trying not to damage healthy roots but I will remove unhealthy looking roots if I feel the plant would like them shed. No sense is hurting perfectly healthy roots, the water dunk frees them up for later expansion without damaging them via foreign bacteria or physical damage. Keep your hands clean when handling roots.

Tip for dunking…. Hold the plant by the base of the stock with one hand, use your other hand to cradle the root ball as if you were holding a bowling ball. So make sure your bucket is plenty wide to accommodate the width of the root ball plus your arm. Be gentle getting it there and slowly removing. You can use the hand that’s cradling the root ball to… finger bang the roots a bit while submerged.

Note: this is something to master after you’ve mastered your watering techniques as it’s imperative you understand soil saturation. Don’t start out on a bad leg with overly watered pots.

Again this is something that is helpful with mother plants or plants that have been neglected and need a little love.