What's Monty on about?

Hi Everyone,

Something that's been puzzling me for some time - so hope someone can answer.

Monty (Gardener's World) was potting on some plants - he said a common mistake was for people to repot their plants into the wrong size pot. He said the next pot size up was the way to go and to not plant in anything larger.

What's wrong with giving the roots more room and say using say a pot 2 sizes up .

Thanks,
Chris

 

Hi Chris

soil may go sour is just one reason also to get the best growth out of the plant so they say , I can see your understanding as I have to do the next pot up with my show begonias but it is a faf and you can so easily damage the plant in the process.

 

Also certain plants only flower well if they're slightly pot bound. As they then feel threatened and think " hey ho it's time to reproduce".

 

All depends on what your potting on, if you potting on ricinus or cannas i go from 9cm pots straight to 2l they grow that fast!

 

thats a good point , yes it all depends what you are growing

 

Potting on in stages makes the plant make the best use of the compost avilable.
Often plants, when potted on, just put out new roots straight to the pot sides and bottom.
If you do it in stages they can only root out slowly, so using all available root room.

 

I've made this mistake with a lot of my shrubs. You end up with a huge root ball and having to remove a very heavy plant from the large pot and root prune every couple of years - the rootball becomes disproportionate to the size of the plant. Of course you'd have to do this anyway eventually when you get to the largest size pot you're going to keep it in, but I've found the plant concentrates on spreading roots to the detriment of the plant itself.

You'll also need to use a lot more water in a bigger pot to keep the compost from drying out.

 

Thanks everyone - I understand now. Next size up it is

 

Thanks for asking this question clanless. I thought about this a couple weeks ago but long forgot when I signed up to this forum.

 

Palms for example will grow better in restricted pots. Big pots means more root growth and less uptop growth. One reason why big plants in garden centres are in small pots.

 

Very much so. For most herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees from seed don't over-pot.

Some plants are tuberous and I tend to pot these on into larger (as opposed to large) pots.

Plants such as Bomarea, Alstromeria, some Salvia species and Dahlia grow clusters of tubers and so I pot these on into deep pots.

I find that large and fast growing annuals such as early sowings of Nicotiana sylvestris need potting on in stages until they get a spurt on. If you can't plant them out at this stage put them into a pot two or three sizes larger.

Finally, the greedy plants such as Canna and Datura. I pot these on two or three sizes at a time.

 

I'm tending not to agree on that one.
The reason big palms are in small pots is because the plants are actually grown in warmer climates, dug up and potted, then shipped here.
Most have been forced, meaning the growth is soft and very long.

One reason why, without acclimatisation for at least a couple of years, most palms look rubbish after their first winter.

 

Maybe but having imported palms and visited many a grower/importer in holland i still stand by what they told me about small pots and better up top growth.

 

But then they would say that.

Wouldn't they???

Never found it possible to grow a palm in a small pot, they just push themselves up all the time, you then end up, after a year or two, with a pot full of roots and no compost.

 

ive got a fair few chusans in cheapy pots the ones from morrisons and theyve put on good growth this year trunk and leaf wise and havent pushed out yet.Same with a brahea armata and about 8 chammies . They will need potted up but into slightly bigger pots only.
I did make the mistake of potting up a date palm into a large pot and it hasnt put up a new leaf in 2 seasons ? Its got 1 more year and if it doesnt get a shift on its going into the compost dump.