Today’s a good day to move my houseplants up to a bigger size. It’s a good day because it is not super windy outside; the last three days we’ve had winds gusting to +50 kph (35 mph). I like to do re-potting outside to avoid making a mess in the house. I always seem to fumble a pot or miss with a scoop of potting mix.
Late summer is an excellent time to re-pot. The plants have had that burst of growth through the longer days of spring and summer. As the days shorten through the fall, the plants will slowly go dormant. If I re-pot now, they will have the time and energy to grow some roots in their new homes. I will only go up one size of pot, unless I find a plant very root bound.
A plant with too many roots will have difficulty picking up water and nutrients. The plant can continue to root in the shape of the pot, eventually strangling itself. The symptoms can look like under-watering, so it’s beneficial to pull the plant from the pot. Here’s some further info here. Somethings, cacti and succulents in particular, like to be a little root bound probably because it mimics their natural desert conditions.
The golden Pothos pictured above has a healthy set of roots, just beginning to take the shape of the container. Notice that the roots are around the bottom of the pot? That’s because I bottom water. After a number of decades of caring for houseplants I accept that I am a chronic over-waterer of houseplants. I especially try to baby them in the long, dark days of winter. I kill them with kindness and the need to garden. Now, I rarely plant directly into an ornamental container, I plant into an appropriate sized plastic pot. I lift the plastic pot to check the weight of the pot; if it needs water I place it in a container of water covering the drainage holes and let it soak up what it needs before returning it to the ornamental pot.
The plant pictured above I only had to gently tease the roots apart, to keep them from continuing to grow around. Sometimes you may need to cut into the mass, sometimes you may be able to divide a plant into two or three pieces. Like pruning on the above ground parts, always remove dead/diseased/damaged and then you could remove up to a third of the root mass. You can re-plant in the original pot if you want, just remove enough root mass to fit into the pot.
You can always water in a rooting hormone, if you’d like the extra assurance that things will go well. It’s generally not necessary, the plants will not be dormant for a few months and should root well. You should be lessening your application of any kind of fertilizer now and quit fertilizing by the end of October. As always, allow to dry out a bit between waterings. I’m just going to use a basic bagged tropical plant soil without fertilizer.
Peace Signs and Pruners 