The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Secrets of success with pots
top out of each shoot. This is referred to as, stopping. Taking away the dominant leading shoot encourages the young plant to branch out, producing several new young shoots which will grow on together at the same rate.
The plants in question will flower in November or December in our conservatory.
The secret of success in growing plants to maturity in pots is to keep them moving. By that I mean they must be potted on timeously; in other words, not allowed to become pot-bound. Oops. There’s another technical phrase!
Most of you will be familiar with it. You don’t wait until the fresh white roots are running in rings around the walls of the pot and becoming lignified (brown in colour) before potting on.
Here’s another... I bought the rooted cuttings at Gardening Scotland (June 1). They were in cells and stood about four to six inches tall. I potted them off into 12AK pots.
Now what the devil does that mean?
Well, the 13AK would approximate to the old four-inch pot, so work it out for yourself!
The 12AK pot measures 12cm across the diameter of the rim.
Taking my own advice, this week I potted my chysanths (acceptable commonly used contraction of the name) into 15AK pots, except that Mr Sankey chooses to call them sixinch or 150mm pots.
You’ve got the message, I’m sure.
Having filled the bottom of the bigger pot with fresh potting compost I stand the plant in on top so that the top level of the root ball is an inch below the rim. I gently add more fresh compost down the sides of the ball, lifting the pot and gently dumping it down on the bench while holding the rootball steady, then gently pressing the new compost down the sides.
In other words, you want to avoid having gaps between the pot wall and root ball. Gently firm all over.
The day before potting on these young plants I made sure they were well watered. It is important that you do not water immediately after potting on.
Why? As these young plants settle in the new compost, the roots will be using up the moisture in the old ball. As it begins to dry out, you want them to go searching for more by pushing roots in to the new compost – which of course is drier, so they keep on searching.
The young plants in their new home can be watered a week to 10 days later.
In the meantime, a gentle overhead spray will prevent any leaf damage from a dry atmosphere.
To avoid confusion about this watering-in lark, I have been talking about young plants with an established root system in a root ball.
If/when you are potting up young plants which are bare-rooted (no established root ball) they must be watered in straight away using a rose on the spout and then shaded from strong sunshine until they start to recover from the trauma.
Finally, a timely word about pruning honeysuckle.
All across the land they seem to me to have flowered exceptionally well this year. I reckon it was the weather wot done it!
Our lemon yellow flowered Sweet Sue did better than ever before. It is time to prune back new growth to help develop flowering spurs for next year.
Follow that with a feed and a mulch. If the site is still dry, a few canfuls of water applied gently in the evening will complete the recovery treatment.