Traditional repotting of indoor plants consists of carefully removing the old soil, spreading the roots on a mound of fresh soil, and adding soil on top. Small and medium-sized plants are repotted after purchase and annually in the spring.
Such a transplant allows you to:
- inspect the roots;
- remove nets, sticks, sponges that remain after growing in nurseries;
- replace the soil where water salts have accumulated (similar to limescale in a kettle) with soil in which it will be easier to care for the plant – this applies, for example, to cacti and orchids.
Transshipment is another method of transplanting. This is an option for the lazy: you need to take the plants out of the old pot without touching the roots, put them in a new pot, and add soil to the top and edges.
This method is suitable for plants with delicate and fragile roots. I don’t clean the roots of ferns, begonias, fittonia, saltirella, some palms (hamedorea, chrysalidocarpus), and zamioculcas. This way you can transplant flowers that grow in a group so that it does not fall apart. If you did a transplant last year, you can do a transshipment this year.
Unpretentious plants – spathiphyllums, ficuses, epipremnum, monstera, sansevieria – will normally accept both a traditional transplant with root cleaning and transshipment.
For large plants, the soil is partially renewed: the top layer is removed to the roots and fresh soil is added. Firstly, they are difficult to remove from the pot, and secondly, after transplanting, they can be very stressed and not stand upright without support. It is better to transplant in March, when the plant has begun to sprout new leaves and has a lot of time to grow. In the fall and winter (from October to February), transplanting usually does more harm than good: plants are dormant and lack the strength to grow new roots.