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Should You Repot A New Houseplant Right Away? Reasons Why You Should Wait To Repot!
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Nov 23, 2022
Repotting a new houseplant may cause more damage than benefit. Waiting until you see the first signs of new growth is key. 🍃 K A Y T O N I K - http://bit.ly/3Gj2Zzl 🎥 2 N D. C H A N N E L https://youtube.com/channel/UCjui7H4Eczaoj3Z92AC-LBQ 👩🔬 G R A B A P L A N N E R Paperback Houseplant Planner: https://geni.us/NFTrl2 Paperback Garden Planner: https://geni.us/s9zc Digital Download Planners https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/GardeningInCanada 📝 S T A Y I N T O U C H Join our monthly newsletter! newsletter.gardeningincanada.net Website/Blog & FREE printables: https://gardeningincanada.net Join The Newsletter: https://newsletter.gardeningincanada.net
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello plant people, how are you guys doing today? If you're new around here, my name is Ashley
0:03
and I like to take science and apply to all plants both indoors and outside. It is blizzarding
0:09
outside where I am so if we're officially going into more house plant type content
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don't worry, I'm doing some indoor gardening stuff and of course we're going to do what we
0:20
did last winter where we just do theory. We just go through theories of gardening
0:25
concepts, that sort of thing to help you guys apply that in the summer. But today's video
0:31
we're going to be talking about whether or not you should replant a house plant after you bring
0:36
it home. Now, this is a topic that I think everyone's kind of a little bit split on. And
0:43
it is because it comes down to your situation and ultimately the plant itself. I'm going to give you
0:49
my opinion on some of this stuff. And then other parts of this is going to be
0:53
more scientific literature. Now keep in mind whenever it comes to horticulture it's typically
0:59
more geared towards the fruits and veg than it is towards houseplants and it's because the funding
1:05
is in feeding the world not so much things looking pretty. So the information here is limited however
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we can apply some of that horticulture science that comes from fruits and veg and apply it to
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houseplants when necessary so let's get into it so this is a plant I got it's a
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Florida green beauty I mean like odd shaped leaf plants I don't know what it
1:32
is I'm totally obsessed now I have to laugh because this plant two years ago
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a year ago even I think would have been like forty five fifty dollars for a slip
1:43
like a small cutting and this bad boy here i think was nine bucks so he's huge he's a little
1:50
ragtag he definitely is growing in a few different directions but he's healthy he's happy since i've
1:57
had him he's put on you know one new leaf and segment so he's doing pretty darn good now you're
2:05
probably thinking well why would you not have repotted a plant that is so ginormous that if i
2:10
put it down and the stem isn't somehow supporting it it's just going to fall over it's going to
2:17
literally tip this pot over because the pot is too small the actual soil content doesn't weigh
2:23
enough and so that's a good question but the reason why I personally do not repot my plants
2:30
right off the bat is because one too many times I find that they are cuttings now this is not an
2:38
issue it's a great way to transport plants however what I will see is when a plant is a cutting any
2:44
damage to new roots is a small setback when we have little tiny nodule roots and nothing of
2:51
you know substantial size when we have more roots in the bottom so if we let this dry out popped it
2:57
out took a look at that root mass we may see more root hairs and fibers and then it's not as bad to
3:05
repot because every time we split a root we redistribute something called auxin which ultimately causes a forking of roots and a larger root biomass so a little bit of root damage under percent under the 30 mark under the nature tax of 30 we typically okay
3:24
However, even if we do have those roots in place, our plant just moved into an entirely different ecosystem
3:32
So it went from what I would presume is a nursery in some exotic land
3:37
like Florida or something of that nature. then it gets shipped to a greenhouse or a plant boutique here in Saskatoon for my
3:47
case but for someone else it may be somewhere different and inside that
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plant boutique that they make their money on plants and they have a ton of
3:54
plants their humidity is probably pretty high similar maybe to what the actual
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nursery was and the temperatures are pretty high as well and then we bring it
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into our home where we may run our temperatures a little bit cooler our
4:09
Our humidity most definitely is going to be different unless we do have an indoor greenhouse
4:13
or some sort of an Ikea cabinet setup. And therefore, the plant has a lot of adjusting to do with its upper biomass
4:21
That means that the lower biomass is kind of gone into almost a dormancy of states
4:28
Now, there's going to be some growth, but it's safe to presume that there's going to
4:31
be less growth or some cutback in that growth. And so because of that, if we do snap a root or we do break something, it is going to take
4:40
a little bit more time for that plant to recover, whether it be callusing that root off and
4:46
then splitting off to make more roots or just in general, recuperating the root loss that
4:52
has happened or been incurred by you repotting. Now, whenever you do repot a plant, you do want to try to break up that root ball if
5:02
its present because we want to redirect that the roots into the new growing medium. The roots will
5:08
do it on their own but if they're particularly tangled they'll kind of just continue to circle
5:12
and not really expand it to the new growing medium or the potting up situation we put them in. And so
5:18
because of that we would have to destroy some roots or we would have to ultimately wreck some roots
5:23
which would affect our plant and it would have a poor response. It may die back, we may end up with
5:30
root rot things of that nature because it's not going to take up as much water as we perceived it
5:35
to take up before so the rules i like to follow when it comes to repotting because it ultimately
5:41
comes down to the root biomass and that plant finding that equilibrium with its upper biomass
5:47
before reconcentrating energy back into that lower portion of the plant because it takes some time for
5:52
the plant to adapt to the new humidity levels we want to wait until we get some form of new growth
5:58
now this new piece of new growth here was present partially when i purchased the plant and that is
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something that i look for when i do purchase plants is some form of new growth showing that
6:08
the plant is happy and healthy and not in a state of shock from when it left the nursery to the
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greenhouse and then i'm not going to shock it again by transporting it to my house so i want
6:17
to make sure that the plant has somehow adjusted to its new environment and that's a sign that it
6:22
has adjusted to the greenhouse that i actually picked it up from that means i going to actually have to wait until I get out or I prefer to wait you don have to wait until I get a second new leaf on the plant That going to indicate to me that my guard cells and my stomata and the plant itself has
6:39
gained some form of equilibrium with the world around it. My little microclimate, if you will, in my home
6:46
And that ultimately the roots have caught up to be able to supply the new growth that's
6:50
happening here. If I don't see any new growth, I am going to wait. because that means the roots themselves have not gotten to go yet and that the plant itself
7:01
has not yet obtained that balance. The balance I'm talking about in this upper portion is the
7:07
plant's ability to adjust to the humidity. So if the humidity falls, which is going to be the case
7:14
commonly in our homes, the stomata will open and when they're used to losing is a little bit of
7:23
water from a humid environment when they go to let the co2 in they lose some
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water but not much because the air is fully saturated what ends up happening
7:34
when we have a leaf that is not adapted to our environment we have the stomata
7:39
sitting there thinking like oh god I'm losing a bunch of water a bunch of
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water is coming out the roots have to be able to keep up with the water loss
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that's happening above ground so the roots are now being told the straw is
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getting very empty we need to speed this process up so the roots are gonna pull
7:57
more and more water into the actual plant too so that one those stomata open
8:02
and they bring in the co2 and they let the water out they're able to keep a
8:07
balance and stop the wilting if we see wilting it's a turgor effect that's what
8:11
we call that and that's caused because we don't have enough water in the plant
8:15
there's not enough blood in the veins to keep it upright if you will if we
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damage the roots we are just really putting that plant in a bad place we
8:27
won't be able to keep up with the new water loss that's happening in our less
8:30
humid environment because we don't have the root mass to keep up with it now one
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thing the plant will do before it begins to put out new growth is it's probably
8:39
gonna put a lot of energy into those roots to build the roots up so that
8:43
there's more root hairs in more sites for water uptake to supply this upper
8:47
biomass that's already here to keep up with the humidity in our environment now one way you can
8:53
try to avoid all of this and you know really speed up the process of being able to transplant
8:59
and speed up the recovery or the shock of a plant being moved to a new environment
9:03
ultimately comes down to vpd now i've done an entire video on this the plant sensor that many
9:11
of you are part of the beta for and you're going to actually get a new final sensor you're going to
9:15
end up with two at the end for the beta people um one of which is really dialed in and professional
9:21
the one you have right now is kind of like a um we want you to test the sensors and let us know
9:26
if they work or not basically so we do we're making some changes for the official one that
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you are going to get but for right now that does calculate vpd and so if you can get that vpd
9:38
in the green that a good sign that the plant going to recover faster and you going to be and you going to be able to repot sooner and you going to be able to lessen the potential stress that the plant may ultimately incur So with that being said
9:51
how long until you can transplant a new plant you brought into your home? And the answer to this
9:57
is it's going to really depend on the plant and ultimately the environment you put it in
10:03
If you want to expedite this process, you need to dial in something called VPD, which is ultimately
10:09
the humidity in the ambient air and you want to have that in an ideal range so that when the
10:15
stomata do open less water is lost or an ideal amount of water is lost to allow the co2 in if
10:22
your home is too dry too much water is going to be lost when the co2 is brought in and ultimately
10:27
it could cause a plant to wilt and make those roots work a little bit harder now this isn't a
10:32
bad thing because the roots will build up in the pot which will ultimately support the upper growth
10:37
and then once the roots have built up a biomass to supply this with enough rigidity this will begin
10:43
to grow your new plant foliage will begin to grow one thing when you get a new plant if you notice
10:49
that this is beginning to brown your new growth that you did see at the greenhouse this is a sign
10:53
that your your plant or your house may be too dry the ambient humidity around the plant is too dry
11:00
and so it had to actually drop this leaf because it's losing too much water through your other
11:05
leaves. This is subtle it's happening on such a small scale that you won't be able to really see
11:11
it so something to keep in mind there. One thing you could do to adapt your plant to your new
11:18
dryer and climate would be to toss it in a Rubbermaid or into some sort of plastic bag
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and slowly but surely introduce it over time to its actual new environment. The bag or the
11:30
rubbermaid is going to be able to keep up that humidity around the plant and then once you know
11:36
at night time or during the day for half the day you would put the plant in the environment of your
11:43
home which would ultimately help that plant regulate or begin to discover a drier climate
11:51
and ultimately put the right processes in place to make that happen so like I said this is just my
11:56
science dig on how to repot house plants if you're comfortable repotting them the moment you get home
12:03
then do so if you have a known issue with the soil whether it's in the wrong potting soil
12:10
or if it has a disease or if it has a bug of course by all means repot it because that's
12:16
ultimately going to save the plant more so than just not repotting it but if the plant is in
12:21
ideal condition you know a little top heavy is fine then that is maybe something for you to
12:27
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12:38
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12:44
bottle of Ktonik with the discount code in the description I thank you guys so much for watching
12:49
If you enjoyed the video, be sure to give it a thumbs up. Hit that subscribe button and let me know in the comments down below if you repot upon arrival
12:57
Or if you'd like to wait for a little bit of time. I'll talk to you guys next time. Bye
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