Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Repotting houseplants
I just recently had to cull 2 houseplants. They were each at least 15 years old and I hadn’t “done” anything to them.
It was well past time and I went after them. A philodendron and spider plant.
My step stool is JUST tall enough for me to get these hanging plants down. The philo was rootbound and droopy, the spider plant just sagged.
I don’t have pics of the absolute mess I made, but I have the cuttings…
Repot those houseplants whose roots are starting to come out of the drain holes at the bottom of your pot or have wrapped themselves around the inside of the pot so many times, they’ve practically formed their own pot!
Go up just one size, that means a pot that’s only 1 or 2 inches larger. Water your plant thoroughly several hours before repotting, tap smaller pots on a table and slide the plant out. You may need to run a knife around the inside of larger pots and lay them on their side, then slide the plant out. Unwind and remove excessive circling roots and any sign of rotting roots.
Fill your new pot with just enough soil to center your plant at the same depth it was planted in.
Fill in around the roots, tamp the soil lightly while you work. Water well and keep it out of direct sunlight for a few days while your plant gets used to it’s new digs!
I had to buy this beauty… a Pothos ‘Picta’.
