Hosted by Witold Czuksanow
How often should potted flowers be repotted? Orchids definitely do so when roots start to emerge from the container. This is how they announce that they are clearly too tight. Other plants ask for repotting more subtly, stopping their growth, fading, sometimes withering away.
Cacti and other succulents are tough guys. These may not be moved to other containers for years, but if we decide to do so, they will also reward us beautifully, especially if they are placed in a substrate special for them with fine washed gravel. Ferns will be lush and green in humus soil with the addition of clay, and green plants - palm trees, dracaenas - in a loose, permeable, lumpy substrate for palm trees. Less attentive observers of the life of plants grown on window sills, terraces and balconies should plan spring repotting no less than once every two to three years. Both flowering potted plants and those with decorative leaves need this. White sediment on the surface of the soil in the pot is usually not a disease, but a signal to repot the plants. The soil acts as a filter and scale, or in other words, limestone, settles on it. Plants do not live well in soil with such ballast, so... get to work! When replanting, do not overdo it with the size of the new containers. As a rule, pots with a diameter two to four centimeters larger than the previous ones are sufficient, they can be slightly deeper. When replanting, remove the old soil from between the roots and plant in completely new ones. Please prepare a substrate suitable for a given group of plants, or universal soil with a humidifier. Do not forget about fertilization. Those who usually forget about it should plant the plants in a light substrate with a fertilizer that works for up to 6 months. Each container should have drainage or a hole at the bottom to drain excess water. Flooding the roots and submerging the plants does more harm to the flowers than a short break in watering.
