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
3 likes Ok that makes complete sense!!
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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.
2 likes Oh wow I didn’t know you could cut the roots! That makes me nervy! Haha that makes sense tho!
0 likesIt’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.
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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 😉
2 likes 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.
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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.
4 likes 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
1 like 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
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