HOW TO REPOT A PLANT IN CONTAINER OR POT FOR OPTIMUM GROWTH

plants growing in containers get root bound after some time and must be repotted into other containers in today's video we will see how to rejuvenate your plants by repotting them in bigger containers or other containers after some time we will look at the different kinds of plants that can be re potted and what are the signs you should look for when re potting your plants no matter what container size you use for your plants they will get root bound this is an example of some kohlrabi plants that had been growing in this container and you can see how much root bound these plants have gotten so when they get rootbound there is absolutely no space to grow this is the time to repot so geraniums are one type of plants that definitely need repotting every one to two years Roses fall in the same category so the reason they need repotting is because they develop dense root systems and must be repotted in other containers every year or every two years depending on how well they grow now before you repot your plant you need to remember two things one is you need to make sure you prune the plants really well you thin out the plants well so that you don't have a lot of crowding going on near the growing areas and the third thing you need to do is to split plants in case they've gotten very big like in this case this geranium plant has gotten really big and you can see how you can separate it out into these various plants so before you even think of repotting it and setting it in a new container you need to make sure you do these steps now the choice of the container that you use can either be the same container which I do for most of the time because you would need to prune the roots as well or you can step up to a bigger container it all depends on the size of plants that you're using or repotting when pruning make sure you're prone all the stems that grow inwards towards the plant remove any dead or old branches and make sure only the healthiest stems remain when you repot a plant it will come back bigger and better and will cause lush growth to occur on the plants so make sure you keep the healthiest part of the plant and leave the rest so once your potting mix is ready I usually like to wet it a little bit before I set it out into the container and then kind of measure your plant and see how much potting mix you need to add before setting your plant in you need to make sure that your plant is still at the same surface level it was when you started repotting your plant so once you determine that level you can just add your remaining potting mix all around the plant and in the potting mix I usually add some slow release fertilizer for flowers you can use a slow-release fertilizer especially designed for growing flowering plants and if you're growing veggies you can use the ones that are formulated for veggies so if you run a little short of the potting mix what I usually do is just add some wood chip mulch on the top and its ready to go and the results you will see are fantastic in just a few weeks you will see lush growth on the plants and a remarkable improvement over what you'll have growing in your container when you set out the plans for repotting make sure that the roots do not dry out in this case I'm using a container filled with water you can add a couple of drops of seaweed or any other liquid fertilizer to make sure the plant absorbs the nutrients perennial vegetables are another candidate for repotting you can see this eggplant growing this is over wintered and growing since last year and its really time for it to be repotted so what you should be looking for are plants that have been growing for a long time but are not showing signs of rapid growth it's now time to repot them so to re-pot container plants like eggplant which have gotten root bound you need to make sure you take out the plants very carefully you can prune the roots a little bit but not too much root pruning is good for very hardy perennial plant like Jasmine or some other plants which have a very dense root system for eggplants although I did trim the roots a little bit I was very careful and for plants like eggplant you need to make sure that the roots never dry out they will be in shock for a long time in case the roots dry out so your number one priority went repotting plants like eggplant is that they need to be moist all the time; the root zone needs to be moist most of the time so while you're preparing your potting mix you can immerse your plants in a tub of water as we just saw so once you lay a plant inside the new container an add the potting mix to the side the plant maybe dormant for maybe a week or so maybe even up to 10 days this is because the plant is adjusting to the new conditions and will send out a new spurt of growth very shortly so just make sure you take care of your plant don't let them dry out during this time and in a week or maybe two weeks you will see that the plants have sent out a new spurt of growth they will start to produce bigger leaves lushy growth and also start to produce flowers so one of the benefits of repotting eggplants like this is that you can get a head start and you have fully grown eggplants right in the beginning of spring hardy perennials like Jasmine are another prime candidate for repoting just like roses, jasmine also develops a very strong and deep root system and gets rootbound very quickly now I've waited too long to report this jasmine plant and what I'm gonna start with is pruning the branches and then removing the plant from the container now this jasmine has been in this container for 2 years and you can see that it's really late for repotting this jasmine plant I should have done it in the first year itself so since I've waited that long this plant has got severely rootbound because of that what I need to do is just hack away a little bit around the base of the roots to free up the soil if you did not free up the soil the roots will not get rejuvenated and they will not grow as well so I'm just using a garden tool to just loosen the roots a little bit remove the soil around the roots and once I'm in a position to prune the roots a little bit I will be using some pruners to cut away the roots a little bit so here are the roots; they are a little loose now and I'm trying to loosen it further you can see how compact and how dense this root system system has become and this is the reason why a a lot of people who did not have success growing plants in containers container plants need to be repotted it is not an option you have to do it so you can see here the roots are pretty loose now and I'm gonna continue to areate the roots get rid of the dirt in between the roots and also prune the roots a little bit you can use pruners to cut away a little bit of the roots; just make sure you're not cutting a lot so just like that just around the the areas where the roots are pretty dense you can go ahead and cut those rots and that also makes it easier for you to plant your your plant in the same container if you wish to now this is a technique that I use to clean out the roots I just put it in my garden cart and then wash the base of the plant a little bit to get rid of the dirt and what that lets me do is lets me preserve some water in the garden cart itself so that the roots to not dry out a lot now once that is done all you need to do is set your plant back into the container now I'm using the same container here but as you can see it because I pruned the roots the plant fits easily into this container while still having about 1/3 of the space below the container and now I'm slowly adding back the potting mix I'm using a potting mix that I'll probably discuss in of my future videos this is a very high porosity potting mix that I've created and this is great for using in your containers although you can use any kind of potting mix I have discussed a couple of potting mixes in my previous videos you can use either one of them and after repotting your plant will now have more space for the roots to breathe and consequently you will get a plant that grows much more vigorously and in a much better way than what was growing earlier so in just a couple of weeks you can see how nicely this plant is growing it's producing new growth and new buds as well so spring is the best time to repot all your container plants the weather had warmed up and it's time for the plant to send out new growth anyway so repotting them will give them that extra burst of energy because they now have more space to grow inside the new container I also highly recommend that you repot roses every year or worst case every two years so that they grow in the most optimum way you can prune roses very heavily almost down to like two or three branches and they will come back up very vigorously as you can see here this rose plant was pruned and then repotted and it came back with a vengeance you can see a lot of new growth; a lot of buds and overall a very nice way to rejuvenate your plant