How often can a plant be re-potted? Hmmmm...There is no definitive answer to this. Plants generally do best with as little root disturbance as possible. However, because we bring plants inside, shove their roots into pots with artificial soil, they must be tended to. Theoretically, you could re-pot every day if you were careful. Re-potting is done to refresh soil and/or move to a different pot. In violets it is recommended to do this every six months or so because the mix most of us use breaks down in about that amount of time. When you re-pot, figure out what you are going for as regarding pot size and soil mix. Then do it and be done. One of the mistakes that newbies make is to be at their plants all the time. Part of this comes from the enthusiasm of the beginner and the joy of discovering something new. But, to grow successfully, all you need do is provide the proper growing environment and the step back and let the plant grow. They don't need to be picked at and prodded. Don't remove leaves from the crown or dis-bud (unless you are showing. Violets are perfectly capable of blooming and growing at the same time. They've been doing it for eons without human intervention). You don't need to strip leaves, trim roots, etc. Plants do not need human help to grow! Linda This post was edited by whitelacey on Thu, May 1, 14 at 13:48

I was going to ask about your containers too Ceresone. I'm very jealous. I have supplement containers about as tall as a five gallon bucket or maybe a little taller, but quite a bit wider. I'm guessing they would be about 15 gallons. The blueberries that I got from Stark Brothers were potted in five inch pots so I thought they might be too small to put in large containers. I put them in three gallon pots for now. I think I will put them in my garage the first winter and then pot them up into larger containers next spring if they grow well. Bonnie - Yes I was sore! lol My arms and back were protesting. I was actually a little creeped out when I was digging that big hole and not hitting any rock wondering why. I thought I might find bones or something. lol Glenda - I'm sure I've never dug three foot deep without hitting rock. That's even more amazing. You must have been wondering if you were on Candid Camera. Let me know when your grapes start to leaf out.

I usually only pot up once before they get planted in the ground. I start them in the Jiffy pellets or six cell starting trays, then about 3-4 weeks, repot them to small styrofoam cups with holes poked in the bottom. They have a few sets of true leaves when I do this. By this time, they are usually ready to spend a fair amount of time outdoors, and I ween them off artificial light. I set them out during the day and bring them inside the garage at night if it's supposed to get below 50. They live very happily in those styrofoam cups until I'm ready to plant. However, I do keep a close eye on the water situation once they get some size to them. Actually, I just bought cups and potting soil yesterday. I plan on repotting about 50 or so today. I started them from seed on April 1st(and a few as late as April 5) and hope to get them in the ground by the first or second week in May. I usually try to get stuff planted around Mother's day. I was worried I was getting a late start on starting my seeds this year, but they are growing very rapidly and I shouldn't have any problems staying on schedule this year.

nikthegreek, I agree with you on your opinion with 511. I live in a hot and humid climate, but my trees do have to come inside for 3-4 months of the winter. I live in middle Georgia. I have used a peat based product for many years and never had an issue with root rot. I hardly have to water during the winter and the trees get through it just fine. I just repotted 2 trees recently that were in a peat based product for over 10 years due to my ignorance and there was no sludge at the bottom of the pots. I don't understand why not after reading other people saying there would be. I just found lots of roots. I also repotted a bunch of my other trees which were in the same growing medium for about 3 years and again no sludge. Just roots. The only thing I can think of to explain it would be the type of fertilizer used. Maybe the type of fertilizer breaks down the growing medium. My trees mainly get Jobes Organic Citrus and Fruit Tree fertilizer because that is all I could find locally. I just started using Foliage Pro last year on a sporadic basis, so we will see what I find next year when my smaller trees need to be repotted. A lot of people disagree with me here and on other social media about using a peat based product, but it works for me so I will stick with it. This year I did add pine bark and extra perlite for extra drainage because my pots are quite a bit larger than I have used in the past. Again, I will see how my soil is in another year or so. I firmly believe that there are different growing mediums that can be used for citrus. It all depends on your location and what's available. Citrus is grown all around the world and not everybody uses 511. Youtube has taught me that.