Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: adri123 on January 29, 2014, 13:21
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Hi
I have small pots and very big pots. I've read that some plants like to be 'potted on'.
Does it make a big difference to the outcome? If it does then I'll get some medium pots.
TIA
Adri
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Usual thinking is you should move up one size at a time - if you put them in a much bigger pot the roots run straight out to the edges and fail to use the compost in between. So moving up gradually helps encourage strong rootball that withstands disturbance better and is more efficient in getting nutrients to the plant
sav
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One size at a time would require a lot of investment in pots!!!
It'll have to be module -> 7cm pot -> 1.5 litre pot -> coop flower bucket.
Can't justify spending more on this cos someone will eventually point out that three times the produce would be half the cost from Aldi!!!
;-)
Adri
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I have never paid for pots, except the packs of 2" ones from Asda (cos they're cute :) )
All the rest have come from freegle, other plot holders or friends/family
And I still have too many!
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Lots of the garden centres have a recycling bin for spare pots that you can help yourself to. I get stacks of them from there.
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I bought plastic cups from the £1 shop and melted two holes in the bottom of each one and use those, 95% of them are getting recycled this year. Ideal for baby tomato plants, before moving them on to a slightly larger pot. last year they had 3 re-pots before hitting the B&Q Buckets so that they had a good sound root ball.
I also got a huge range of sizes from a nice lady on freecycle who had moved into a new house and bought shedloads of plants to landscape her garden.
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I learnt a handy tip for potting on. Tip the plant out of its pot, then select the bigger one you want to plant it in. Fill the bottom with some compost and tamp it down. Put the first pot inside and add more compost if needed so the top of the inner pot is level with the outer. Fill the space between the two pots with compost and firm with your fingers. Gently twist the inner pot out. This leaves you with the exact size of the rootball to fit in nicely. Pop the plant in and firm gently, then add extra compost if needed.
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I learnt a handy tip for potting on. Tip the plant out of its pot, then select the bigger one you want to plant it in. Fill the bottom with some compost and tamp it down. Put the first pot inside and add more compost if needed so the top of the inner pot is level with the outer. Fill the space between the two pots with compost and firm with your fingers. Gently twist the inner pot out. This leaves you with the exact size of the rootball to fit in nicely. Pop the plant in and firm gently, then add extra compost if needed.
when I started doing this a few years ago I was being really careful tipping the compost down in between the two pots, finding it really fiddly....until I realised that you can just throw the compost all over it, it doesn't matter if it goes in the inner pot! Silly me!
sav