Week 1: You're gonna need a bigger boat

Finally. Warm weather is arriving. It’s been an interesting week weather-wise with unseasonably cold temperatures, and several (rare) frost advisories. However, the forecast is looking good for the foreseeable future, which means it’s time to repot Bob and bring him outdoors.

Current Status

Inspecting the bottom of the current container, we can see roots growing out of the drainage holes. This is a good indication a plant is root-bound. Since we don’t want to inhibit growth any further, we’ll need a bigger pot ASAP.

I’m tempted to repot Bob in a large container right away to maximize growth; however, as a general rule-of-(green)-thumb you don’t want to place plants in pots that are too big right away as we could potentially introduce a few undesired side effects. With pots that are too large for the root-ball, moisture can become a problem as we’d simply have too great a volume of soil for excess water to be stored. With a smaller root system that is unable to take-up all this extra moisture, we could potentially run the risk of root rot. We could also introduce a perched water table (excess water suspended at the bottom of the pot) where again roots are unable to reach yet to suck up that moisture.

We’ll play it safe for now and use a smaller pot that reduces the risks mentioned above while still allowing room for growth. I’ve found an appropriately sized pot that I think will do the trick. Pro-tip: always make sure whatever pot you’re placing a plant directly into has drainage holes at the bottom. This is a must to prevent waterlogging your plant! Bob’s a little root bound here, so I’ll loosen the root ball and wash some of the existing soil off to give the roots some much-needed room.

Soil Composition

With the pot situation out of the way, this leads us to our next topic: soil. Often overlooked, this is arguably one of the biggest factors in plant health. I’ve found the commercial soil mixes (the one bag solution) to have varying levels of quality and composition. In my experience, a lot of these off-the-shelf products retain too much moisture. Luckily, I’ve come prepared. We’ll be making our very own mix today, producing a soil mix that (hopefully) Bob will be happy with.

I’m going to start with a base of standard potting mix and upgrade with some of the amends you see in the photo above. I’ve opted to do equal parts potting mix, perlite, orchid bark, coco coir with a 4:1 ratio of the aforementioned ingredients to worm castings. In hind-site I’d probably reduce the amount of perlite used, maybe a 2:3 ratio of perlite to the other amendments. I’ve mixed these together by hand and will place in along with Bob in his new pot.

Anyway, here’s the final result: Bob in a new pot with a happy homemade mix of growth-boosting soil. Barring any more cold temperatures, Bob will be living outside – being acclimated to direct sunlight over the next week. I’m hoping with the exposure to direct sunlight and combined with repotting that we’ll start to see some excelerated growth.