Potted plants looking a little tired? Here's our recipe for happy plants!
When your plant starts to look a little deflated or adopts a new repose, and you’ve ruled out the supplement or watering routine - it could be a sign you need a good old-fashioned repotting.
Changing up the soil and or upsizing to give your plant’s roots space to grow, can help your flora flourish!
First things first - Change up that soil!
We recommend assessing your plant and giving them refreshing nutrient–rich soil every two years. This is also a good time to check out the roots and assess if your plant needs a new pot along with new soil. Also, ah-hem, add biochar.
Two big ol’ benefits of adding biochar to your potted plants:
1.) Biochar holds onto water and nutrients, drastically reducing the amount of nutrient loss during watering.
2.) Biochar aerates the soil: this helps circulate air, keeping the soil loose and getting oxygen to the roots…yeah, they need to breathe too!
Why repot you ask? Potted plants can only access the nutrients in the pot you’ve given them (especially indoor plants). They don’t have access to the diversity and life that inground gardens get. Their roots only really know the ecosystem of the pot they live in. You’ve given them a good start with the right potting mix and supplements, but over time, as the plant uses those nutrients and through watering, more nutrients and soil can seep from the pot through the drainage holes. This can leave the nutrient levels depleted. A little tip that often gets overlooked – make sure you prep your plant before you repot it.
Follow our tips below to repot in 8 steps
Another reason your plant is looking a little listless could be that it has simply outgrown its pot. Congrats!! Plants want to grow and you’ve enabled that. A sign that it’s time to upsize the pot can be as simple as eyeballing the height of the plant compared to that of the pot. If it's looking a little top-heavy then those roots are probably busting to get space.
Other causes of a sleepy-looking plant could be too much fertilizer or too much water, which, you guessed it, can be solved with new soil!
If you suspect you’ve overwatered your plant (which we’ve all done) and the roots and soil are a bit soggy - you can remove it from its pot, shake off the soil a bit and place it atop newspaper to absorb the excess moisture – recommend to sit for 8 hours or so. Overwatering can cause mushy stems and roots or even fungal growth on the soil surface. If you notice any fungus or bacterial growth on the plant or pot, make sure you clip that from the plant roots and sterilize the pot before plopping in fresh soil.
How To Repot In 8 Steps.
1.) If you think your plant needs a new home - choose a new pot that is about one to two inches larger in diameter than its current pot.
2.) Prepare your plant for its journey by watering it a few hours before you intend to take it out of its pot...assuming it hasn’t been overwatered. The water will help the soil and roots cleanly exit the pot.
3.) Prep your pot by creating a base of your soil mixture to set the roots on. Don’t forget to add some biochar into the mix 😊. Build the soil to your plant’s root depth – this is the soil that your plant’s roots will grow into so you’ll need to know how large the plant’s roots are…that’s the next step.
4.) Remove the plant from its pot by gently grasping the base of the stem. Tip the pot over (if it’s a larger pot, go ahead and tip it to its side) and gingerly wiggle the soil and plant from the pot.
5.) Give it a little shake to get some of that old dirt off. If it has any binding in the roots, gently break apart the dirt around the root ball up and if you would like, trim some of the roots so that the fresh cuts will take to the new soil. We're not advising a total makeover, so don't go crazy here, keep the trimming modest.
6.) Set the root ball into the pot, eyeballing where you would like it to sit. Keep it centered and mind that leaves or flowers are high enough that they can access the right amount of air and sunlight. You’re going to want at least one inch of space from the soil top to the rim of the pot – this is so the soil doesn’t splash up/spill over while watering.
7.) Once you’ve positioned the plant and filled the remaining space with soil, make sure you keep things light - don’t compact the soil in the pot by packing the dirt in there. A light touch goes a long way!
8.) Just Add Water! Don’t fertilize right away. Give the roots a chance to soak into that soil and take in those nutrients. You can add more soil if you’ve noticed post-watering that the soil level has sunken.
And there you have it, a recipe for a very happy (office) plant.
Dig in and have fun!
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