How to Encourage Plant Growth After Repotting Your Plant

Many potted plants can live happily for many years and never need a new pot. Sometimes plants need to be repotted to encourage growth. If there is a sign of water draining out too quickly, a plant growing too large, or a glimpse of root showing through the soil, it is time to repot your house plant.

Here are ten simple steps to repotting your houseplant.

Make sure it needs repotting. Check to see if a houseplant needs s repotting. If the roots are circling or growing out of the holes, or the pot is cracked, stretched, or breaking, the plant needs more growing space. Repotting a houseplant that does not need repotting can cause unnecessary trauma.

A plant may need to be divided. It may be necessary to divide a plant and repot them separately. If so, cutting or gently pulling them apart. It may be necessary to divide them more than once, depending on how much growth has occurred.

Select a new pot or pots. A new home needs to be chosen carefully because a pot too big will retain water and this will rot the roots. A pot should be no larger one or two inches in diameter from its previous pot.

Cover the holes in pot before adding soil. Add a fiberglass window screening to prevent the soil from slipping through the drainage holes. Don't add stones or gravel to the bottom as this will prevent water drainage.

Add the soil. Make sure the soil you buy is the right kind of soil for your type of plant. Create a base of soil in the new pot, overtop of the fiberglass window screening.

Break up the roots. Stimulate the plant to grow in the new pot by gently breaking up the roots. The rotted roots need to be cut. If there is a tough, hard root, that needs to be cut as well.

Plant in new pot. Gently pick up the plant by the crown and place it in the soil base that was just created. Fill the pot with soil. It should not be any less than one inch below the rim to give room for watering.

Water the plant. After the plant is repotted, water the plant and wait 30 minutes to see if there is drainage in the saucer. If there is, drain it.

Give the houseplant light. Put the houseplant near a window, or an indoor artificial light to help stimulate new growth while it settles into the new pot.

Fertilize. If you are repotting a houseplant in the spring or summer, fertilize every couple of weeks. If you are repotting in the fall, fertilize once a month or so.

Repotting a houseplant is simple and easy, and it will encourage healthy plant growth.