Help! With repotting and growmore!!!!

Hi

I am a complete complete novice!! I think I have made a terrible error, I was told by someone my palms I bought needed repotting, I was advised to use John Innes No 3 but I dont really understand anything about plants having just started out. i read ALan Titchmarsh beginners book and it seemed to advise to add fertlizer to the compost when repotting. I didnt realise having studpidly not read the instructions on the JI No3 that it already contains fertlizer! My question is this, will I have overfed my palm when repotting by adding growmore along with the compost? Also 2nd question I have no idea how much to add of this stuff I got the little pellets/ granules and sort of liberally added as I filled up pot! I am really really worried I am going to kill these palms now. I have only repotted today, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please forgive my ignorance....I really love plants but probably should read a good few books before giving it ago! I also have not so long ago purchased 2 large cordylines and now the leaves have got yellow spots on them....again I am being told to repot them asap as roots are coming up....any advice please on any gardening tips...how to water, how often, what to do when repotting huge plants ...yellow spots and most importantly how I can stop feel like I am killing them (which is probably factuale!) ....losing confidence quickly ....novice beginner...thanks to all whom take the time to read and reply.:confused::(

 

Good evening Ceaf, and welcome to the site. The obvious thing to do, as you only repotted the palms today, is to re repot them. Only without the Growmore.:thumb::D You only add fertilizer to the SOIL when planting out.

 

Too mutch nitrogen will indeed kill, as david says no need for feed.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum. First rule of gardening is that however many books you may read, it is the first hand experience that makes a difference, so don´t feel too bad about your mistakes. It´s all part of the learning.

As a rule you don´t feed plants just potted in new compost, but if they are very greedy and fast growing you can add slow releas fertilyzer. As David said, to be sure you can repot the plams. If they have been there only a short time it will not make much of a differnece for them if you take care. Palm roots are delicat-ish, so be gentle. When plants grow too big for repotting you can just remove carefully the top of the soil from the pot and replace it with new soil. Pot bound shrubs benefit from being pulled out of the pot, and the root ball cut all around with a knife, removing some 5 cm of roots and soil in every direction: sides, top and bottom. Then you put then back in the pot with fresh soil. I wd not do this with palms though.
When a plant is in old soil feeding is all important.
Read books by all means, but keep your hands busy in the ground, that is the best book of all ;-)

 

Hi Ceaf you're not on your own in the past I have made the mistake of adding grow-more to my potting compost only to find out that it burnt the plants roots but as the saying goes 'it's all a learning curve' and we all make mistakes sometimes.Hel.xxx.