Repotting S/H

[Ray]

Originally Posted by DTEguy

Hi Leadfoot,

I think similar is fine but it might be better if you put your phal's roots lower into the reservoir since there is an upper dry line.

Not necessarily.

For one, like any other repot, the plant will need to grow new roots for the most part anyway.

Secondly, the moisture content of the medium is a gradient from bottom to top. The so-called "dry line" is the level at which the evaporation from the surface of the pellet has outstripped the pellet's ability to transfer more moisture to it - but moisture transfer is still occurring, and the plant can absorb it.

Greater the evaporation rate, controlled by temperature, humidity, and air movement, the deeper in the pot the "dry line" appears. In my warm and humid greenhouse, there is no such line at all, and the pellets stay moist all the way to the top.

[DelawareJim]

To reinforce Ray's thinking, the longer you wait between watering the deeper the "dry line" moves as the moisture evaporates and is used. The more often you water, the higher the line.

Also, you can't overwater in s/h. I've had plants get over 20 inches of rain in 14 days during hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee and they didn't skip a beat.

Cheers.
Jim

[greenpassion]

Wow. I have no idea where I 'learned' to clean off all the bark and moss from the roots, and put it into the leca, but this is what I've always done. I think I was told to be sure to get all the biodegradable stuff off the roots before putting the plant into the leca because if I leave any on there, it'll all rot. And yes, I have had problems with the once healthy roots quickly rotting once in the S/H. So do I have this right? I should take a plant, put the whole pot into a bucket of water for 15 minutes, then when I pot it in S/H I leave any material that is on the roots alone? Don't clean it off?

[Ray]

I always remove as much organic matter as is possible without severely damaging the roots.

You're right, it'll rot.

[greenpassion]

Ray, I am confused. I read this reply from you (I think) to another board member, in the S/H forum, about how to repot a plant from bark to S/H.

"Soak the plant as-is.
Wait about 15 minutes.
Put enough medium into the larger pot so that the plant will be at the same depth as before.
Pull the plant, medium and all, out of the current pot.
Put the as-removed plant into the new pot.
Fill up the space areound the root ball with fresh medium.
Water it in and you're done."

When you wrote 'put the plant as is into the new pot, I thought you meant with any organic medium still on it. I wonder if this post was for a plant [Bnot going [/B]into S/H. ??

[DelawareJim]

Rays quote sounds like potting up an already S/H plant into a larger S/H pot.

If you think about it, if you were to take a plant grown in organic medium, put the entire rootball in an S/H pot and fill in with LECA, the entire rootball will eventually rot away and collapse; if the plant were to survive that long. You'd end up with a mix of LECA and muck sitting in the bottom of a pretty empty pot. Not what S/H is about at all.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ray]

Jim is right. That's the s/h-to-larger s/h repot.


Ray Barkalow
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