A little repotting show....

[Luke Skywalker]

Hi all. I was repotting some seedlings yesterday, and during the process I was thinking about how hard it was for me to know what to do until I'd tried out a few things. Many plants suffered at my hands because I was slow to do things, or too quick with others...

 

Anyway, I thought about it a bit, and came to an idea. I'll make a series of photos on how repotting a small seedling can go.

 

And here they are.

 

The subject is a Dutch Passion Purple Star Seedling. It's a little over a month old, and getting ready to power on her (I hope) main vegetative growth stages. To prepare for this, it's repotting time.

 

The seedling was started in the Aquamiser, as some of you may know, and was germinated and grown to this stage in a mixture of coarse perlite and coarse vermiculite about 60/40. There was also a base layer of perlite placed in each of the aquamiser pots, to help prevent excessive drawing of moisture from the base.

 

They'll be potted out into perlite pure, as this is usually my media of choice, and this too is a very coarse grade... (Waterworld brand) They'll be handwatered for a bit, as I'm not keen to be setting up elaborate watering systems for plants I don't plan to grow out to flower. Although that may come later, as my stoner mind considers the factors.

 

Here's a shot, showing the two seedlings, (I'll be dealing with just the one for this repotting show) in their aquamiser 80mm pots, as well as the new pot, a 175mm plastic pot. This has been scrubbed and cleaned out with bleach and hot water, and allowed to dry, then rinsed out. That makes for a clean pot, and no potential nasties as it's a reused one.

 

You can see that these pots have large drainage holes, which come up the sides a bit. I must admit that concerned me, as I've had bad experience with too large drainage holes pouring out perlite from the bases when watered. I need not worry tho, as this perlite is more than coarse enough to settle into a good position at the base, so as it's locked in, but not preventing drainage. Must say I was happy to find that, I'd pissed around with some screening for the bases of the pots for quite a while before I just poured perlite in, watered it well and checked if it poured out...

 

Well, here's the picture of the seedlings, and the new pot to be.

[Luke Skywalker]

Right, now we'll take a bit of a closer look at our seedlings top. It's now at the 5 node stage, with a couple developing in the crown. These plants are to be tipped out soon too.

[Luke Skywalker]

One of the main ways to tell if your plants are ready for transplant is their root systems. Usually, the root system is about the same mass as the plant above ground. In the seedling stage, they can be quite a bit bigger than the seedlings above.

 

A healthy root system is white, and if you look closely, you can see fine hairs coming out from the rootlets. If roots are brown, or come away easily in your hands and have no hairs, you may have some problems. The root systems of plants like a goodly supply of water, and also a goodly supply of air. If you have too much of one and not enough of the other, you'll have problems. A closer, and denser media requires less frequent watering to maintain that moist/airy balance, whereas a very open media may require very frequent waterings indeed. And with no media, a constant supply must be present.... (i.e. aeroponics/dwc)

 

Heres a shot showing the roots coming out of the base of the pots, looking for the moisture which is held below them. The roots on this particular plant had entered the sponge at the base of it's hole in the aquamiser. Keen.

[Luke Skywalker]

Let's get to the action shall we?

 

Here we show the new pot has been filled about a third of the way with perlite, to about a level which if you place the smaller pot in there, the soil levels are even...

[Luke Skywalker]

And here's the pot showing the levels.

 

It's usually better to slightly overestimate the height, but only by a cm or two at most. This is because most media, unless the little seedling/clone is completely rootbound, (not really a good idea anyway) there will be a loss of media at the base when you remove it from its present pot and place it in the new one.

[Luke Skywalker]

The moment of truth is coming...

 

When you repot, place your fingers around the stem like so in the picture. This is to keep the plant stable through the upending/repotting process....

 

Sometimes tho, it doesn't always go to plan... Still, this is the standard position for repotting. from there, upend, holding the pot with your other hand, and gently squeeze the sides to draw the seedling out. It can come in a rush even without the squeeze, particularly with loose media forms.

[Luke Skywalker]

And here's what happens. The plant is popped out into your hand, and a god awful mess spills everywhere... .

 

Be gentle, they need careful management. If you can get the plant into the pot, in a smooth movement, and it's at the right height, then you're laughing.

[Luke Skywalker]

Another view of the root system.

[Luke Skywalker]

And now we're moving the plant into the pot, and after upending, I've moved the plant a bit to give you a good view of the young root system.

[Luke Skywalker]

Now we fill in the space left with fresh perlite. Don't pack it down too firm, as the water will do a lot of the work for you later. Still, pot it well, just be gentle.