The job went well, exposing many roots ‘mainlining’ into our beds, and within a few days the bulk of offending roots were severed, and blocked from entering the garden. The trench would be dug to ‘hardpan’ depth, about 3’ – 4’ deep, and lined with doubled-over sheets of galvanized metal roofing. Our plan was to dig a trench along the 60’ western perimeter of the garden, blocking any roots migrating into our raised beds from that direction. But as more beds became depleted and our planting options narrowed, the need for a root barrier became urgent, and so the digging began. I tried to convince her otherwise, knowing that if she were right then I had a big job on my hands.įor a few years we put off the inevitable – building a root barrier to keep invading tree roots from accessing our fertile garden soil. She pulled the root upwards to show how it was coming from the direction of the giant fir tree. My go-to for peace lilies, and many other leafy tropicals, is 3 parts of a good potting soil (like Miracle-Gro or Espoma that you can purchase on Amazon) and 1 part perlite.My wife was first to see the connection, digging deeper into the raised beds until she came upon an inch-thick woody root, obviously not from any vegetable crop. Lastly, choose a well-drained potting mix, but one that retains a good amount of moisture since these are moisture loving plants. Pot it up using a well-drained potting mix Then I slip the plant into a decorative pot. I find myself planting directly into plain green nursery pots with drainage holes.
If you choose a pot that is much bigger, the potting mix will potentially take too long to dry out.īy all means, always choose a pot with a drainage hole. For example, if you have a plant in a 4 inch diameter pot, your new pot should be a 6 inch diameter pot. My rule of thumb when repotting is to choose the next pot size up from the old pot.
If you have a tight rootball and you don’t take either of the measures mentioned above, your plant might suffer the same fate of my poor Spathiphyllum that I mentioned above (which is doing great now by the way!) 2. They will recover, and your plant will be much better off! This will at least give your plant an opportunity to grow new roots where you made the cuts.ĭon’t worry about damaging a few roots here and there. In these cases, simply take a sharp knife and make several vertical slashes or cuts (1-2 inches long or so) on the sides and at the bottom of the rootball. Sometimes if you have a SUPER rootbound plant, especially plants with fine, tight and fibrous roots, it may not be possible to use your hands to loosen the rootball. You are essentially loosening the roots so that they are more available to start growing into new potting mix in its new pot. Here is what the peace lily looked like after I loosened the root ball. You don’t have to go crazy, but this will go a long way in stimulating more root and plant growth once you repot into a larger pot. Gently pry and separate the roots to loosen them up a bit. When you have your plant out of the pot, start by loosening the roots at the bottom, and then work on the sides. This will make it easier to tease the roots apart. Then wait for a few hours, or even the next day, to begin working on it. I would always start by making sure that your peace lily is watered. There are two ways that I would recommend to loosen the rootball. How how do you loosen a peace lily root ball? Two Ways to Loosen the Rootball Shame on me! It was probably out of laziness, but at least I determined what happened. No new roots had grown into the pot! And it had been in that pot for years! The roots stayed contained to the tight rootball, which I obviously did not loosen when I repotted. I had repotting it a few years back, and the plant wasn’t growing to my liking, so I decided to take it out of its pot to check it out. The plant was growing very little and had started to decline. Once I had a peace lily (Spathiphyllum) that I had in a big pot and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t doing well.
If you fail to do this (particularly for peace lilies or any plants that are extremely root bound), your plant will not benefit at all when you place it in its new pot. Loosening the rootball is a very critical step in repotting a plant.
0 kommentar(er)
