Hi, I am David Epstein and welcome to growing wisdom. And you know one of the things that a lot of folks might be a little bit afraid to do or to lock in is to repot one of your plants. We are going to show you how easy it is, it really is one of the easier things you can do. When I like to do this is when the plants are about to start actively growing.
So, as we are headed towards that spring season. One of the reasons why you need to repot is that you are finding that you have to water more often, or the pot gets very light when it is dry. You are finding that maybe you do not have as much soil in the pot.
All the roots may form the shape of the pot. There is virtually no more soil that the plant is in. So we are going to take this plant out of its pot, and we are going to move it into another pot.
You want to go one to two inches larger in diameter for your new pot. We can see that the interior of this pot is about six plus inches, and we are going to move that into a pot, which the interior is about eight inches. So, I have increased it by about an inch and a half.
Notice that there is a hole in the bottom here. Obviously, I cannot put the soil directly in there. So, I take an old piece, you know I have pots that I have broken, they drop on the floor, you can take a stone and you just want to put that in the bottom. What that will do, is it will stop the soil from running out as you water it, but it is not going to stop the water from running out.
So, this pot is about an inch higher than the old one. So, if I were to put this in the bottom, what is going to happen is, it is going to be too deep. You want the plant seating at the same level that it was in your previous pot.
So, how are we going to do that? Well, we are going to put some soil in the bottom and we are going to raise the soil level up so that when I place this plant in the pot, it will be just as high.
A general all-purpose soil is pretty good for a plant like this prayer plant that we are using. When I estimate about how high up, I want this and one of the things you want to do is you really want to pack that down.
One-step before I finally put this in, I want to tease the roots. We want to encourage some growth, so now we put this in I have got a little bit of room there at the top of the plant so that when in do water it, it is not going to run out the sides or over the top.
You have your soil and what you are going to do is you are going to pack this in. And, it is very important that you pack it in very tightly. So you have like a little toll like this as small spade. You could use that to help get the soil down in there.
And your final step is you want to water it. So there you have it, how to repot a houseplant. Come back every week for all of our hints, tips, helps and be sure to check out garden chatter you can ask you questions there. Thanks for watching.
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