Repotting plants with too much soil? Let’s talk about overpotting

Why not repot our plants directly into a large pot to avoid moving them every year? good question! I get asked this often, and in fact it’s time to understand why it’s so important the vase is proportionate to the development of the plants and that it gradually grows with them.

Plants grown in pots need to be transplanted (in general) every year or two to allow the roots to develop properly and to replace exhausted soil. However, it is essential to understand which pot size is best to ensure the healthy growth of the plant; a pot that is too large can cause problems with over-potting, or overpotting.

Why not pot the plants into larger pots straight away?

There are many reasons why, especially in nurseries, plants are not repotted immediately, in particular:

• space, in nurseries the space available is limitedif each plant was in a much larger pot than necessary it would be a big problem;
• development, the plants may not be mature enough to adapt to a larger pot, an excessive amount of soil risks retain too much watercausing root problems;
• greater need for nutrients, the more land there is available and more nutrients are wasted in spaces not reachable by the roots;
• less effective in drainage, we now know that water stagnation causes very serious problems for our plants, including the dreaded root rot, excess space in the pot could make adequate drainage is difficult of water inside the substrate.

For all these reasons it is important to adopt a gradual approach when repotting the plant, to guarantee its health and well-being.

What is overpotting?

We understood that proceeding gradually is important, but if we didn’t do it, we could experience, as the Anglo-Saxons call it, theoverpot.

Against overpottranslatable as «excessive decanting», we are referring to a ppotted plant that has been placed in a pot that is too large for its needs and, for this reason, I am experiencing health problems.

Using a pot larger than the plant’s needs does not automatically cause problems, however complications can arise when overwatering is done or when the plant’s growth is limited, perhaps due to the season of the year or its slower development rate.

How can I know if I have repotted a pot that is too large?

As soon as repotting is done, the plant will seem to be fine, it takes some time (variable from a few weeks to a few months) so that any problems begin to show their symptoms.

In particular, the signs to pay attention to are:

• unusually slow growth;
• loss of leaves;
• yellowed or browned leaves;
• wizened appearance;
• excessively wet substrate on the surface.

The suffering of the plant, in this case, is caused by new soil which, remaining wet for too long, reduces aeration around the rootswhich in turn will not be able to grow by expanding into the new substrate, but will rot.

Naturally, the soil, thanks to the evaporation processes, will dry but it will take much longer than necessary if it is present in abundance. Consequently, more fresh soil means dealing with more humidity, especially if the substrate used is fine and free of coarse aggregates.

One of the biggest problems is that the symptoms mentioned above often occur confused with those of water scarcity and therefore we try to remedy it by wetting the plant even more, thus making the problem worse. Another aggravating factor is the seasonalityin fact, if the transfer is done during the warm months the earth will be able to dry more quickly, but if it is carried out in spring or autumn this will extend the time even further.

How to choose the right pot for the plant?

Paying attention to the size of the vase is important, in general we always try to go from one size to another of a vase ranging from 3 to 6 centimeters in diameter from time to time. This means that a plant in pot 10 will go into a 12/14, a plant in the diameter of 14 will end up in a 16/18, a plant in pot 18 will usually go into a 22/24 and so on.

When to repot plants?

The correct time for transplanting the plant is at the beginning of a vegetative growth season, therefore at the beginning of spring. If the plant needs a second repotting, I recommend doing it at the end of summer, around August/early September.

Now the decanting is done and we realize, too late, that the pot is not suitable for our plant or, even worse, we realize that the excess substrate is causing damage to the plant, what can we do?

I’ll start right away by saying that running to repotting the plant again is not a recommended action. What I recommend is simply to pay attention to watering and preferably water by sub-irrigation.
If it is necessary to fertilize the plant, prefer foliar fertilizations (the biostimulants of Cifo, this fertilizer for green plants and Asso di Fiori, are all perfect for foliar fertilization).

If the situation does not show improvement it is necessary:

• flaring, very delicately, the plant affected by overpotting;
• choose a vase of a more appropriate size;
• pot the plant again;
• water by sub-irrigation until the plant has recovered.

Want to know more about how to repot your plant? Click here!