Repotting your Houseplants

Just like people, as plants grow, they require more room to spread out in, and repotting your houseplants becomes an important part of their care. Repotting can be easy and will set your plant up for increased growth.

and encourage a more established, fullerlooking plant. If your plant was maturing in soil outdoors, then it would have the ability to soak up its required nutrients from the ground. Nutrients help your houseplant to grow, reproduce, and fight possible diseases. However, when planted in a pot, your plant doesn’t have the opportunity to access fresh nutrients, so it’s important to repot with new, enriched soil to support its development.

When does your houseplant need repotting?

Why should you repot your houseplants?

Repotting your houseplants is very important to promote healthy growth

As well as this, after a period of time, your houseplant will outgrow its pot. The older and larger your houseplant gets, the more room it requires. Throughout maturation, the roots of your houseplant will grow in order to gain nutrients and water. If your plant has outgrown its container, the roots will become suffocated and will be unable to absorb the necessary nutrients.

It’s relatively easy to tell when your houseplant will want to be moved to a larger pot. If you haven’t noticed any increased growth from your plant, then it might be time for it to have a little more space. When you water your plant, do you find that it dries out more rapidly than before? This might be due to it needing a new pot as there are a lot of roots soaking up the water. Also, if you notice the roots pushing out of the top of the soil, it’s likely that it’s outgrown its current space. Similarly, if you lift your pot up and there are a lot of roots poking out of the hole in the bottom of the pot, then it’s time to give it more room. It’s a good idea to repot your houseplants every 18 months when dormant.

For our guide on caring for houseplants when you’re on holiday!

Some plants don’t need repotting as often as others because they thrive in smaller spaces or have shallow root systems:

• Monstera deliciosa (Swiss cheese plant)

• Crassula ovata (Jade plant)

• Succulents and Cacti

• Dracaena trifasciata (Snake plant)

What you need to repot your houseplants

Before you begin repotting your houseplants, it’s a good idea to gather all necessary equipment beforehand, as it can be quite a messy process. Of course, you will need your original plant pot with its outgrown plant, along with the new plant pot that you will be transferring it into. When choosing your new pot, ensure that there is a drainage hole in the bottom to avoid any overwatering and it is two sizes up from your current pot. If you have a pot all ready to go and you notice that it doesn’t have a hole in the bottom, you can cover the bottom of it with a layer of pebbles. This will help the drainage system, as the water can escape under the pebbles rather than being soaked up by the new soil and too much of it reaching your plant. Just be aware that you will need to drain this regularly to stop the water pooling. You will also need fresh soil enriched with nutrients for plant development. Lay out some newspaper for easy cleaning, and use gloves, especially if you are repotting a plant that may cause irritations.

How to repot your houseplants

When repotting your houseplants, keep in mind that you want to cause as little trauma to your plant as possible. Use delicate, slow movements to ensure that you don’t damage your plant.

1. To remove your plant from its original planter, hold your plant on its side and gently tap the bottom of the pot. This should help it slide out of the pot easier, but you may need to lightly pull on the base of the stems to remove it.

2. As the roots have been tucked into a small space, they will need to be loosened so that they can access water and nutrients in their new pot. The thicker, more developed roots should be placed toward the top (closest to your foliage), so they have room to grow down. You may wish to remove any roots that are extremely flimsy and thin.

3. Remove the old soil from your plant to make space for the fresh soil that you will replace it with.

4. In your new pot, add the fresh soil that’s packed with nutrients. Don’t overfill the pot, as you need to leave space for your plant and for watering.

5. Centrally position your plant on top of the first layer of soil, and add more soil to surround it. Be careful not to compact the soil on top of the roots too much, as this will suffocate them and they will not have the space to breathe or grow.

6. Give your newly potted houseplant a good watering.

Repotting Orchids

Orchids work in a slightly different way when it comes to repotting, as they grow in a coarse medium that needs to be changed to provide them with enough space to continue growing and being healthy.

It’s important that you don’t repot your Orchid while it’s in flower; usually, just after flowering before the roots start growing is a sensible opportunity to repot. After you’ve removed your plant from its original pot, you can remove any roots that have browned or rotted. The pot that you’d like to transition your Orchid into should be around 5cm bigger than its previous home, and it should have holes around the surface area to enhance the circulation of air. Look out for specific orchid pots in centre.

Orchids are extremely fragile, and they can easily attract bacteria, so soak your new pot with a domestic sterilising solution prior to planting. Place the new coarse medium in a bowl of boiling water and leave until it reaches room temperature. You can then drain the mixture before adding it to the new pot and placing your Orchid on top of it. Delicately push some of the mixture between the roots of your orchid and mist for around a week. You should then see new roots developing.