Moving Loved ones

[geezer0]

Hi all

I have 4 x Caapis that have been in pots for about 4-5 years and I am now moving ....but they have grown big roots out the bottom of the pot ...can I transplant them into bigger pots and get what roots I can out of the ground ....will they survive ?

I also have 3 x1m high khats that I want to put in pots they are in the ground at the moment...any chance ?

All help and experience would be appreciated ... I don't want to loose my baby's :-(

Cheers

[planthelper]

hi, geezer!

there are certain thumb rules you can follow, when attemting as you said above.

1, avoid any sun and heat stress for the plants, till they have formed new roots.

2, the roots comming out of the pot, were probably supplying the plants with a lot of goodies, so you have to prunne the above ground growth in proportion with the root mass you lost. all the roots you still have in the pot's will help, the plant to make this drastic change.

3. water well all plants before, pulling the pot's of the ground, a well watered plant will cope with this schock better than a thiersty one.

avoid fertilizer for a while, before the move.

4, caapi will move well, just prune her heaps, she will fast re grow anyway, nothing lost this way.

the catha's are a bit more fuzzy, but will move aswell alright, just avoid, SOILS AND POTTING MIX OF DIFFERENT STRUCTURE TO COME TOGETHER, in the new pot's. this means removing most of the garden soil and than you replace it with seed raising mixture, or any high drainage potting mix. catha would hate, to have the garden clay soil on it's roots, and than some potting mix to fill the pots.

if potting mix or soils of different structure and waterhiolding capaceties come together in a pot, this will create thermo lines (lot's of water in one of them, hardly any water in the other) and catha edulis hates this and can even die from it.

in other words make sure if you mix garden soil and potting mix, it's very well mixed up, or better only use one of them.

good luck, if you think, halve of the root mass got damaged, prune halve of the plant off, understand?