Jim McColl Gardening Notes

I’ve often heard: “You gardener chappies have lots of funny sayings! What is ‘pricking out’? What is ‘potting up’ or ‘potting on’? What is ‘hardening off’?”

Because it becomes part of our everyday job we never think these phrases might not be understood by others less well versed in matters horticultural.

The thought occurred to me the other day when I was “potting on” some chrysanthemums.

Having sown seeds in a pot, when they are big enough to be handled and in need of more space to develop, we lift them out of the sowing compost and plant them separately in a box of compost or in individual cells. The process is referred to as pricking out or pricking off.

In time, some of these young plants may be potted in to a bigger cell or pot, giving them even more compost and space to grow in. This process is referred to as potting off.

If yet another move is required, like the young chrysanthemums I was busy with, they were being potted on to a bigger pot.

When the young plants had reached about six inches high, I nipped the