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  • #1

    potting on

    when do you know when to pot a plant on?

    I was always taught to pot on once the roots showed through the drainage holes, or if the plant looked like it needed new soil.

    I've grown lots of stuff from seed this year and I'm potting on at epic rates, so much so that I wonder if i do it too quickly? I only move up a pot size or sometimes 2 if I don't have the right size, but compared to other peoples plants the plants look too small for the pots? It doesn't seem to look like it's doing harm but i wonder if they are putting all their energy into root production rather than fruiting and flowering. can you leave things a bit longer, even if its just a week or so?
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  • #2
    Originally posted by buzzingtalk View Post
    I was always taught to pot on once the roots showed through the drainage holes
    Yep, that's what I do, and I only go up one pot size at a time (even if it means potting a plant on several times, like a tomato)

    The other way to tell it needs to go up is if the pot is drying out ridiculously quickly (again, tomatoes dry out really quickly if they don't have enough compost round the roots)
    All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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    • #3
      sweet. it just seems my plants are too small for the pots, but i guess its because garden centres/lots of other people don't pot on when they should. i'm used to buying and seeing plants very potbound with reams of roots in the bottom.

      It is a pain though as I have to buy in compost so potting plants on every other week or so (like I seem to be doing at the moment!) is beginning to get quite expensive, but once they stop growing so much it will be much easier.

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      • #4
        I do skip a size if one has grown particularly fast! Or 2....and some of mine are waiting to go into the final Morrison sized pots as they have grown so fast.

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        • #5
          I tend to go on how fast they're drying out, but will repot, say, a tomato plant quite a few times before it's in its final position. Some of my tomatoes, like Shirleys and Sungolds are in 1.5l pots and starting to flower already, whereas slower growing ones are still in 3inch pots - all sown at the same time.

          Compost is cripplingly expensive - I've bought 6x60l and 6x70l already this year Hopefully that will be enough to see the greenhouse crops in their final positions!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by SarzWix View Post

            Compost is cripplingly expensive - I've bought 6x60l and 6x70l already this year Hopefully that will be enough to see the greenhouse crops in their final positions!
            With you there Sarz. I've run out just as I wanted to pot up some toms

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            • #7
              I've only spent about £20 so far on compost - about half of that was on seed compost and john innies number 1 for seedlings which I still have some leftover for next sowings. I am pretty much out of compost now though, will have to drag the OH to garden center soon. I lost count of how much I spent on compost last year, although I bought much too much eracious compost so have a few bags in a friends shed waiting for autumn in case the blueberries need re potting.

              Think I might do as you have done Sarz and buy a good few bags at once - I'm hoping 4 70L bags will do me as I only have a small pot garden, and have potted on strawbs etc into pots that should be much big enough for them. Only things I have to repot are all my toms in morrisons buckets, 2 cucumbers (also into morrisons buckets i think) about 6 chilli plants and a load of herbs. Oh, and some salad and stuff growing in seed trays.

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              • #8
                I've got 2 greenhouses, and everything in them is grown in pots, plus spuds in containers (even though I swore I wasn't using spud-tubs this year ) so I use a lot of compost... It all gets used as soil improver afterwards though, and my clay definitely needs it!
                Last edited by SarzWix; 28-04-2011, 01:02 PM.

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                • #9
                  Every year as I empty my potato dustbins and other pots I riddle my used compost and over winter it in the dustbins with the lid on making note of what compost goes where. Come spring I add a base fertilizer and reuse it. That which grew spuds last year will be used for greens and so on, kind of a pot growers rotation.

                  I do buy fresh compost for seed cutting because it should be more sterile and I do replace some on a rotational basis. So far this year I have bought 2 70ltr bags and 1 25ltr bag and I think I will get away with that amount.

                  Colin
                  Potty by name Potty by nature.

                  By appointment of VeggieChicken Member of the Nutters club.


                  We hang petty thieves and appoint great ones to public office.

                  Aesop 620BC-560BC

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                  • #10
                    Interesting comments!

                    Potting on: I haven't potted much on as I didn't have any medium sized pots and don't have the money at the moment to spend on them. But I registered with 'freecycle' a few days ago, after seeing it mentioned here on the vine) and was lucky enough to see some pots (stated as 5-7", ideal) only a bus ride away! I got them and unfortunately most are 3" (more than 100!!) although there are about 15 medium sized, but hey... they were free and I have already used some!!

                    Compost: This is my first year and I am growing everything in pots. About 8 weeks ago I got 4x75L bags thinking it was ALOT, but now it is very nearly all gone! Good to hear how people re-use in different ways. Potstubsdustbins what do you mean by 'riddle' it? I was thinking of trying to re-use it as much as possible with addition of more nutrients also.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by bronwen View Post
                      what do you mean by 'riddle' it?
                      Sieve it to get the lumps out: a gardener's sieve is called a riddle

                      You can make your own potting compost out of leafmold (autumn leaves). This is my first year of having a good quantity of it, and it's brilliant, saved me loads of money

                      I also have a pots clearout every year, but I tend to put them on eBay for a penny (as freecyclers tend not to turn up)
                      All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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                      • #12
                        I am so grateful to work in a garden centre. I get the split bags for free. Saves me a fortune
                        WPC F Hobbit, Shire police

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                        • #13
                          As for pots,

                          My son has just dropped by he was in our local branch Of Morrisons this morning and lo and behold they have at last had a delivery of their black buckets £0-99p for eight.

                          Nice boy bought me two packs and dropped a hint about his tomato plants oh and his peppers and lets not forget his cumbers.

                          Colin
                          Potty by name Potty by nature.

                          By appointment of VeggieChicken Member of the Nutters club.


                          We hang petty thieves and appoint great ones to public office.

                          Aesop 620BC-560BC

                          sigpic

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                          • #14
                            Sieve it to get the lumps out: a gardener's sieve is called a riddle
                            Thank you... feel quite ashamed of my lack of knowledge there!

                            Lucky you FionaH to work in a garden centre and have the perks!

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                            • #15
                              yes very lucky working in a garden center!

                              I have some morrisons buckets too for the first time this year - there are some larger ones and a few smaller ones - i presume the larger ones are the best for toms and cukes, and the small for chillis?

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