Welcome Back!!
Actually, that is probably what you are saying to me. I have
been absent for quite sometime now. No, I haven't been on vacation, nor have I
been sick. The truth of the matter is, I got incredibly busy (I won't bore you
with all the details) and I also had a severe case of writers block. I thought
I had come up with a good topic a couple of times, then, when I sat down to
write it, there was nothing there.
Hopefully, that time off has fixed my head.....Yes, I wrote
that so you can fill in your own jokes.
Spring is quickly approaching, at least the calender says so.
Mother Nature may have a thing or two to say about that, especially for those
of you buried in snow or expecting more!
Either way, it will soon be time to repot many of your plants that have
been sitting there all Winter.
Are you ready?
I could write an entire article on how do you know when it is
time to repot a plant and I might just do that in the near future. Here is a
brief idea of how you can tell. If you can see roots on the surface of the soil
or emerging from the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot. If your plant is
just not looking well or has completely stopped growing, especially in the
growing season it is probably time to repot.
Today however, I want to talk about pot size and which one
you should go up to.
I found this picture of the industry standard pot sizes.
There are, of course, many in between sizes and the 25 looks more like a 30 to
me, but it at least gives you an idea of comparison.
I have been in many discussions about what size pot to use
when repotting a plant. The conventional wisdom is, The new pot should be no
more than 2 inches wider at the rim or 2 inches deeper than the old pot.
Why, you might be asking.
There are a couple of reasons.
1)
A pot that is much larger gives the roots too
much space to grow into.
2)
A too-large container will also hold too much
water and can cause root rot.
3)
It will stunt the plant and make it not grow for
a while.
I guess these can be good reasons, though, as in life, every
rule has an exception.
Personally, I like to go a couple of sizes up, if possible. A
few reasons I might not be able to at any given time would be things like, I
don't have a much bigger pot or I don't have enough potting mix.
Yes, I know, then just wait until I do. Time is not always on
my side and that plant REALLY needs to be repotted.
Here is my thinking for going ahead and putting them into a
bigger pot. I will debunk the above reasons as we go.
“ A pot that is much
larger gives the roots too much space to grow into”. Well then, what happens
when you put the plant into the ground? That is a MIGHTY big pot!
It was explained to me like this. If you move into a new,
much bigger house than you were living in, you will fill it with stuff. The
plant will do the same thing.
With a dumb founded look I said, “AND”!?!
Is that not the purpose of the plant? To grow and produce
lots of roots? That person walked away. I am not sure if I ticked them off, or
they went off to ponder that. The roots of the plant want to reach out and
grow. They have a couple of reasons for their existence, to provide food to the
plant and to anchor the plant. The more area they cover, the more secure the
plant is in the soil.
“A too-large container will also hold too much water and can
cause root rot”. I can almost see this. If you use a very water retentive soil
mix and repot a Cactus or some other water sensitive plant, then yes, you are
correct. However, if you use a very well draining soil, with lots of perlite or
some other course additive, there should be no problem. The container should
also have lots of good drainage.
You can also throw into this mix, the difference between clay
pots and plastic pots. Plastic will hold water a little better than the clay. I
still like the plastic pots better, they are much lighter.
“It will stunt the plant and make it not grow for a while”.
I have actually never seen any evidence of this. It is
possible that people that have had this problem injured the roots in some
manner. The plant was in shock and had to replenish the root system. While
there is active root growth, there will not be any top growth. So it makes
sense that the roots are hurt, they are trying to fix themselves and the plant
is not growing.
Another reason I tend to go to a much larger pot is plant
size. I had a Citrus tree last year that was in a three gallon pot. The tree
itself was very tall, but not terribly rootbound, though it was getting there.
Every time the least little amount of wind blew, it would tip over. So, I
repotted it. I put it in the next size up, a seven gallon. The next day, after
some heavy wind overnight, there it was on the ground again. So, needless to
say, it was in a fifteen gallon that afternoon. Hasn't tipped over since.
I mentioned I have gotten extremely busy earlier. So, as the
old expression goes, “The shoemakers daughter goes barefoot”, I do not always
have time to work my yard like I want to. So, when I do have time, and I have a
plant that needs to be repotted, I put it in a much bigger pot, it will then be
set for a longer period of time.
I know there will be LOTS of disagreement with my thinking on
this whole subject. That is fine. Hopefully it will cause some thinking and
maybe help somebody that is on the fence about what size they should use.
As always, if you have any questions, or if you want to
discuss this further with me, I am only an e-mail away....TheCitrusGuy@netzero.com
Happy Growing!
Darren
Hi, Darren,
ReplyDeleteI think the real reason for the graduated pot size advice is to sell more pots. It's not like kids being put into shoes that are way too many sizes larger. My sense of root mass size to plant size and height is not offended. A pot size too big is far less harmful (if at all) than the "all roots in a beehive bun and no soil" situation with container-grown citrus.
I just left the tropics of Southern California, with a too-long vacation in Maui [we are haoles, never to be accepted as locals, even after 5 years] so I had no trouble growing citrus until now, as we moved to the central coastal area of Oregon (zone 8b according to the USDA). I have put too few minutes into restoring a 10x8x7high poly-covered hoop house on our property, with hopes of getting some decent dwarf citrus to live there. I really miss the year-round morning OJ fresh-squozen from the Valencias we had! Have you done any posts about greenhouse citrus?