Rattlesnake plants, also known as Calathea lancifolia, are popular houseplants appreciated for their unique foliage patterns and vibrant colors. Repotting a rattlesnake plant is a necessary task to ensure its continued growth and vitality. This essay will provide a step-by-step guide on how to successfully repot a rattlesnake plant.
Basic Principles of Potting
Changing pots for plants should follow a few principles, don’t rush to change pots when the plant is just bought (you have to slow down the seedling first and wait for it to grow new hairy roots); try not to change pots when the plant is in bloom (or else it will drop the buds and the leaves); don’t change the pots when the plant is in dormancy or semi-dormancy (excessively high and excessively low temperatures); and don’t change the small plants into large pots, or else it will be hard for pots to dry out, and the soil will continue to be wet, and the plants will rot very quickly.
First of all, you should choose the right time to take out the plant, try not to choose to change the pot in the rainy season, it is best to change the pole in cool weather.
When raising flowers, try not to use a pot with a big belly, that is, the top and bottom are narrower and the center is wider, this kind of pot is especially difficult to change the pot, and the potting soil is difficult to take out of the container.
The Best Timing of Pot Changing
- The most suitable in the plant dormant period, the early stage of growth, these two phases of potting, the impact on plant growth is not great.
- Suitable for spring and fall; some plants, winter is also suitable.
- Potting is generally carried out in spring and fall, if the winter temperature is suitable for heating, potting in winter can also be. But generally will not change the pot in summer, the temperature is too high, plants are easy to die.
- For plants that are in the slow seedling period, do not change, because the flower is simply come to the damage, then change, will cause secondary damage, so that the slow seedling period is infinitely prolonged (should be a few days to recover, forced to delay to a dozen days or longer), if the potting season is inappropriate to rush in the summer season, and may even be directly hung up as a result.
How to Change Rattlesnake Pots
- The new pot should be compatible with the plant. If the plant has not grown much, then the original pot will do. If it grows a circle, you can find a large 5-10 cm pot, large pots to raise small flowers, easy to accumulate water and rotten roots. For fast-growing flowers, change the pot once a year, and for slow-growing ones, change it once every two or three years.
- Stop watering for a few days before changing pots, let the potting soil dry out a bit, when changing pots, the root system is easier to detach, not easy to hurt the roots.
- After the pot, check the root system, cut off the old roots, dead roots, rotten roots, generally retain about 15cm of root system can be, the center of the heart of the soil do not peel off, retain 1/3-1/2 of the soil. 4. the bottom of the pot should be padded with water, so that it can be used as a watering hole.
- The bottom of the pot should be padded with drainage pebbles or ceramic tiles, put the flowers and plants into the potting soil, add soil to fill. Water it thoroughly and put it in a cool and ventilated place to maintain, and then transfer it to the normal environment to maintain after recovering the vitality.
- Change pots should pay attention to not many times a year to change pots, not more than 2 times, otherwise many times hurt the roots of the plant growth is impeded, the recovery cycle is long.
- If the conditions are poor, such as winter or hot summer, in order not to hurt the roots, you can also change the original soil pot, or the root system is intact and very healthy, you can not repair the roots. After the pot is taken off and put directly into the new pot, then slightly loosen the soil, fill in and water thoroughly. Because there is no injury to the roots, many flowers and plants after a week to adapt to the new potting soil and crazy growth, for some inexperienced florists, it is also very useful trick Oh!
♦ Water Control and Pruning
The soil should not be too wet before potting, if the soil is in a wet state, the roots of the plant will be more fragile, and the root system will be easily damaged when changing pots. It is best to wait for the potting soil is slightly dry when changing, this time the root system is also relatively dry, even if the damage is not easy to rot.
If the potting soil is particularly hard, you can water the potting soil thoroughly once the night before the potting change. If it is cultivated in looser nutrient soil, control the water appropriately before changing the pot.
If the root system has grown all over the potting soil, you should stroke the root system appropriately, and it is better to let the root system spread out instead of making a ball.
If there are some roots have grown out from the drainage holes, it is definitely necessary to cut off these roots, otherwise it is difficult to change the pot well, unless the whole pot is broken. Maintenance of potted plants, if the pot is placed directly on the surface of the soil, this “grounding” method, indeed, can make the plant grow particularly well, the plant’s root system will soon emerge from the bottom of the pot at the drainage holes.
♦ Invert the Pot
When changing pots, you can directly invert the pot, use your fingers to hold onto the bottom of the plant, if it is a plastic pot, you can pinch the edge of the pot with your hand; if it is a ceramic pot or pottery pot, you can use your hand to knock the edge of the pot, so that the soil and the pot to separate.
If the roots of the plant grow all over the bottom of the pot and it is hard to get out of the pot, you can use a bamboo stick or chopsticks to poke directly at the drainage hole to push the soil mass out of the container.
♦ Knocking and Squeezing to Get out of the Pot
If the pot and soil are particularly heavy and cannot be inverted over, you can place the potted plant on its side and tap the bottom of the pot with your hand to slowly pull the plant out of the container.
Seedlings that grow too densely will have to be repotted and transplanted.
If the plant is in a plastic pot and it is difficult to remove it from the potting soil, you can squeeze the pot hard, pressing the pot hard in two or three different places until you can get the potting soil out.
If the potting soil is still stuck inside the container, you can insert a bamboo stick at the edge of the pot, or use a discarded fruit knife, inserted into the potting soil around until the potting soil out of the pot.
♦ Physical De-potting
There is really no way, you can destroy the pot, if it is a plastic pot can be directly with gardening scissors, from the top to the bottom of the cut. If it is ceramic pots such as containers, you can directly crack, especially the pot with a big belly, the root system grows all over the potting soil, changing pots is extremely difficult.
♦ Tip:
Flower enthusiasts planting potted plants is best to choose loose and well-drained potting soil, if the fingers can not be inserted into the potting soil, then such a soil is certainly not loose enough.
Especially in indoor flowers, if there is no better soil, it is very difficult to raise good flowers, this is also the environment has to do with the indoor environment is not well ventilated, lack of sunlight, and the outdoor environment is too big a gap.
This is why I recommend that you use smaller pots for indoor flowers, it is so that the potting soil dries out faster, allowing the plant to grow more compactly, and the soil will not be wet all the time, which will not easily cause rotting of the roots.
By providing the plant with better potting soil, the plant’s root system will grow healthier and it will be easier to change pots later on. That’s why keeping flowers is all about care, and if a certain part of the process isn’t done properly, the state the potted plant is in when you first get it home may be the best it’s ever been.