Aubergine wilted after repotting

[Braceandy]

I just repotted my 3 Aubergine seedlings into larger pots. The plants are about 8-10cm tall. They were in 5 cm pots and I moved them up to 10cm ones.

One of the plants is fine, but the other 2 have drooped/wilted and are almost totally on their sides. They look like they haven't been watered for days but they were fine before and I gave them a water after.

Any ideas what I might have done wrong?

[Thelma Sanders]

keep them somewhere warmish, but out of direct sunlight and don't water them any more until the compost feels dry when you stick your finger into it.

They probably just got some roots broken during potting on, they just need to grow some new ones before they get sun on them.

[marchogaeth]

What Thelma says. You could try and keep the humidity up round the leaves - maybe misting or putting them in plastic bags. If you use bags don't let them become all wet and dripping-take the bags off, shake out the excess water, turn them inside out and then put them back on every day or so. If you have damaged roots you need to limit the amount of water the plants are transpiring.

[Braceandy]

Ok, thanks for the advice. So, next time, I guess I should be more careful to keep the roots protected when repotting!

[Kristen]

Shouldn't (so to speak) have been any root disruption when potting on, so something wrong in your method I think?

First you need to wait until the plant has formed a good rootball. Once this has happened you can get the plant out of the pot with the whole pot of compost / rootball intact. Turn plant and pot upside down, support the plant's stem between your fingers - i.e. rim of pot [upside down] resting on your hand. A sharp tap on the rim of the pot and the rootball should drop out into your hand.



I first use an empty 5cm pot as a template to fill the 10cm pot. Bit of compost in the bottom of the 10cm pot, put the 5cm pot in the middle - rim of the template 5cm pot should be same height as the rim of the new 10cm pot, if not add/remove compost from the bottom of the new 10cm pot.

Add more compost around the edge between outside of 5cm template and inside the new 10cm pot. You don't have to fill it to the top, half way will do (and is probably better). Hold the new 10cm pot in both hands with your thumbs on the rim of the template 5cm pot - this way you can keep it nicely in the middle and "upright" - and tap the bottom on the bench two or three times., This will settle the compost (but don't go all Arnie Schwarzenegger!! as it doesn't want to be compress).



(Photo shows filling right to the top, that's fine but I don't bother as I find it easier to insert the plant if the surround is only half-ish filled)

You can then take out the template 5cm pot and it will leave a nice hole which you can drop the plant straight into.



Once the plant is in make sure it is a snug fit (knock it on the bench again if needs be) and top up the compost so that the level is the same as before - which should be at about the height of the lip around the pot, 1/2" or so from the rim, to allow room for watering.

[marchogaeth]

First you need to wait until the plant has formed a good rootball. Once this has happened you can get the plant out of the pot with the whole pot of compost / rootball intact.

The really important bit. We all twitch a bit and want to pot on too soon. It is a waste of time moving plants to bigger sized pots if they aren't (just about) filling the one they are in.

[Thelma Sanders]

Little plants grown in propagator seed trays have to be potted up.... so don't he too hard on yourself, if you break a few roots. They usually perk up fairly quickly The same should apply to your little plants.

I simply don't have enough propagator space to start everything off in individual pots or modules to avoid root damage; but it's usually easier to avoid damage once they are in their own little pots

[Alison]

This us why I germinate in teeny little newspaper pots, free to make (I use the free paper), take up little space and zero root disturbance when potting up the first time as the whole pot goes in the new pot.

[marchogaeth]

Yes, if you were pricking out, it is much more tricky. I'm having to do it this year and not looking forward to it. I much prefer individual pots from the very start.

[TrysHard]

Re-potting is always going to cause stress - I try not to faf to much - I minimise root disturbance and try not to over water it is the same a seed germination not all germinate and not all seedlings will survive.

[Alison]

Re-potting is always going to cause stress - I try not to faf to much - I minimise root disturbance and try not to over water it is the same a seed germination not all germinate and not all seedlings will survive.

Agree about minimising stress but loss rate on repotting should be very close to zero if you're careful.

[Kristen]

I know I've been doing it a long time, so "second nature" to me, but I don't think there should be any losses from potting-on (to a larger size pot). Root disturbance should be as close to zero as makes no odds.

Potting-on to a significantly larger pot can mean that there is too much compost, relative to the plant size, and thus watering is more tricky - the plant has to drink a lot of water, from the new very large volume of potting compost, and thus watering is more difficult to "get right" and that can lead to lack of air in the compost. Also, too much water and too little water exhibit the same (wilting) symptoms in the plant, so for a newbie it would be easy to give more water, thinking the symptoms indicated that the plant was dry.

Potting-up (e.g. pricking out) is different in that the seedlings have to be separated, and that needs a gentle hand. I used to pot up direct to 9CM, as that was my eventual planting out pot size, but I did get quite a lot of losses - mainly from over watering I would think as I grow 1,000's of plants and don't attend to each one individually when watering. I've changed so I now prick out to 1" cell modules and then pot-on to 9cm. That has cut my losses to virtually zero (had a snail or a slug eat a whole tray of seedlings last night, very annoying, they are in a different place to normal and I must have bough a critter in on the side of a pot or somesuch and it is making hay but that is unusual for me). However, it does increase the work as I now have to Pot-on as well as Pricking-out. Slight up-side is that the 1" cell modules take up less space than the 9cm pots in the early stages, so I save/gain some bench space.

[Jungle Jane]

Yes, if you were pricking out, it is much more tricky. I'm having to do it this year and not looking forward to it. I much prefer individual pots from the very start.

I find it helps if you use a spoon to scoop out the seedlings,never touch the stems,if there are two seedlings close together,gently tease them apart at the root,only touching the leaves gently & the root,the stems have tiny hairs that are easily damaged.

[Kristen]

Except for very small seed I sow the seeds one-by-one spaced out a bit (1/4" maybe?) in the container as it makes it easier to prick out as there is some space between them.

For packets that have lots more seeds than you need it can be worth sowing "several" in individual module cells and then just cutting off the excess with scissors once they have grown enough to be sure that the one being left is good'n'nstrong