When and how to repot your indoor Plant Babies
Its that time...
Get your indoor plant babies ready for the warmer months. Dont be daunted, its easy and quite therapuetic getting your hands dirty! Repot any time in the warmer months, but I always like to do it in the Spring months so that my plant babies can do their hard work over summer.
Read on to find out when you should be repotting, how to repot and and what fertilisers to use!
First off, how to figure out IF you should be repotting.
Normally indoor plants need to be repotted every 12 to 18 months. Also check if the roots are protruding from the bottom of the nursery pot or coming out the sides of the top soil. If yes, time to repot!
What size nursery pot should I use?
Definitely dont jump in too large of a size - so, if your current plant is in a 14cm pot, dont jump over a 19cm pot. Her roots will grow before her top half starts to grow. If you give her too much space, it will take a while for her roots to fill in.
What you will need:
- A good bag of repotting mix (and a mask to prevent Legionaires disease, you can also wet the new soil and let it rest for a few hours).
- An outdoor scissor (or your kitchen scissor).
- New, larger nursery pots.
- A trowel of some sort (I have used a kitchen spoon before LOL)
- Fertilizer (read our blog below) or a store bought fertiliser you trust.
- Water
1 - Remove your plant from its nursery pot
Gently remove her from her current pot by holding the base of the plant. If she is quite root bound, cut the nursery pot off. Loosen the roots a bit, removing about half of the current soil, giving them a firm squeeze here and there and trim if necessary. Do not cut off too much of the roots.
2 - Put her in the new pot
Scoop a layer of soil in the new pot and position the plant on top, so as the base of the plant is in line with the top of the new pot. Add more soil around the plant to cover the roots. Gently and firmly pat down the soil but not too heavily as you want to allow the roots to do thier thing without getting squashed.
3 - Give her a good watering!
This will allow the soil to set around the roots, top up later if necassary. Fertilize with a liquid fertilizer but a very watered down version, you dont want her roots to burn. Later on, about a month or so after repotting her, fertilise as normal. We have a great article below on natural fertilizers you most likely already have in your home.