Bought to ask a potentially stupid question lol when you repot, do you always remove the old dirt from the root system? Does that HAVE to happen? I haven’t repotted often but I think I’ve kept the root ball as is and just added more soil below and around 😬 like should I break all this up?
I don’t remove the dirt but I do break up the roots a little so they have more space to go
3개 좋아요 Ok that makes complete sense!!
0개 좋아요
There’s so many ways to repot 🙂 I replace almost all the soil when I do my repots. If there’s some stuck in the roots, I leave it alone. For some plants, I cut about 1/3 of the roots to get them to fit in about the same size pot and have soil all around the roots. No more than 1/3 though, otherwise they’re more likely to get stressed.
2개 좋아요 Oh wow I didn’t know you could cut the roots! That makes me nervy! Haha that makes sense tho!
0개 좋아요It’s not necessary to remove the soil unless it’s bad soil or you think something is going on with the roots of the plant. I almost never remove the old soil.
3개 좋아요
It’s really a case by case basis for me. Personally I like to remove as much old soil as possible and break up the roots, especially if it’s a new plant or the soil is hydrophobic. But sometimes that’s very near impossible to do any of that. In those cases, I’ll just do what I can, shake out old soil and mechanically dislodge roots. Or if not, just surround with fresh potting soil. Plants will usually figure it out whatever you decide to do 😉
2개 좋아요 Thank you all!! Successfully repotted a pretty big snake plant and this lil spider plant!
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I see no reason to shock the plant any more than it has to be, so I try to leave most of the dirt in the root ball.
3개 좋아요
That’s my take on it too for house plants. I avoid removing soil and breaking roots unless I’m getting rid of pests in the soil. Handling the roots can cause breakage adding stress and creating entry points for bacteria.
4개 좋아요 Also super great points!
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I leave the roots and use a chunky homemade mix with perlite orchid bark and high qaulity soil
좋아요 1개 That’s essentially what I did! It was perlite, cactus soil and then organic potting soil! Heavier on the perlite since I didn’t have the orchid bark on hand
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When I plant my garden with fam every year, I always squeeze my plants a little just to break up the roots, I recommend doing the same with this
좋아요 1개