planting hostas in pots or bags for the ground?..help
steeltowninwv
9 years ago
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Babka NorCal 9b
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Raising potted Hostas off the ground
Comments (4)I've found that keeping them off the ground eleminates 99% of the slug damage. I use pot feet mostly. I have seen slight slug damange on two hosta this year. One had some vinca touching it and the other touched the fence. I moved each away from those things, put some bug getta in them and the damage stopped. I noticed a few years ago that the pots that were on the ground in spring were full of holes. The ones on feet weren't. So I put them all on feet. Since Babka showed me her sticks, I've started using them too. It seems as if it will work as well as feet and they're a whole lot easier to get. It works for me. I didn't have any good photos of pots on feet, but you can see them on this photo. (ignore the hail damage)...See MoreNeed soil advice for potting Hosta that is in the Ground
Comments (9)Missy, I found the best pots for me are the ones I found at Lowes, they are various sizes, various depths, and they are black plastic with holes on the sides of the pot. So no matter if you set them on the ground, they still drain out the sides. Earlier in the other thread I did not finish with what I use to pot my hosta. The MiracleGro (no moisture control please), some perlite, some bark small pieces as small as you can find, and then I mix in some crushed crab shell. I suppose you could use shrimp shells too, but oh mercy enduring the odor would be awful! The chitin in the crab shells feeds the good bacteria that eat the bad nematodes which will mar the beauty of your hosta, or other plants for that matter. If you discover really long roots on your hosta, then tease them out a bit to fit around the potting mix coned up high in the pot.....I make sure the crown of the plant stays up higher than the mix surrounding it, but cover the roots. You don't want mix covering the stems/petioles of the plant. Water it in, top it off with a bit more mix, and set it in the shade. Potting it up will be a shock to it at first, but with shade it should recover nicely within a day or two. If it is a big hosta, with lots of long stems and heavy leaves, it is recommended that you gather the stems together and put some blue masking tape (3M is blue, it is not too sticky) around the bouquet BEFORE you dig it out of the soil. Then, leave the tape on the plant until after the leaves have recovered from being moved and potted up. This keeps them from drooping. Size your pot according to the root system. If it is a black or dark colored pot especially keep the pot from the sun. I deal with this problem by surrounding large pots with smaller ones or else with plants that have large tops to make shade and protect the black pot from overheating. The sun can really COOK the roots!...See MoreHelp with transplanting and potting up ground grown plants
Comments (2)Hi Jennifer, Are you absolutely, positively certain they knew you were just an Ordinary Person who was bringing a few of your Ordinary Plants with you---rather than a nursery or some sort of a commercial operation who was planning to "import" plants into the state? I've done several searches and I can't find anything at all regulating INDIVIDUALS who are bringing plants into the state for their own personal use! All that stuff you posted above sounds VERY much to me like something we would have been dealing with when I was still in the Green Industry! Maybe I'm wrong, but I kinda suspect if you call the Colorado Dept. Of Agriculture and tell them you want them to "inspect" the plants you dug up in your yard they might--well--have you locked up! ;-) Go to the site I'm linking and look at the Oregon Word document. That's ALL about commercial operations. I did find info about not bringing pot (not potS, POT!) into the state---guess you're gonna have to start all over again with seed! :-) And there's information about Noxious Weeds--which are included on that document. And while WAY back when, there used to actually be "guards" stationed where you went "into" California to check for Illegal Contraband, even CA doesn't do that anymore, so to whom are you supposed to show your Colorado DOA inspection certificate? I'm not sure how you'd go about checking further! Maybe you should call the Colorado DOA and try to explain to them what you were told to see what they say---and be sure you tell them you're just an Ordinary Person who's planning to dig a "few" plants up in your yard--and will be potting them in a soilless mix, and taking them with you when you move to Oregon. Be sure they know you have NO intentions to either propagate or sell them. And, whatever you decide to do to check further, PLEASE come back and let us/ME know what you find out. With all the people moving here, there, and everywhere these days, I just can't imagine that either the Oregon DOA OR the Colorado DOA is running around people's yards inspecting a few plants here and there. Now, having said all that! The plants you got from me at the swaps were all grown in Sunshine #1. I'm guessing you're gonna use a fair amount of soil to pot the things you're digging up, so I recommend getting a bale of it (30-some dollars) at Paulino's and use that. Bales are by far the cheapest way to buy soilless mixes since it's compressed and you're getting a lot more than it "looks like." Sunshine mix is also what ALL of Paulino's plants are started and grown in (they sometimes use a different # mix for propagation). I'll repeat this one more time! DON'T buy Hyponex---if you want them to still be alive when you get there! And I don't recommend Miraclegro--WAY overpriced, and extremely inconsistent quality. For the perennials, as soon as your soil is workable, I'd dig up small divisions (they'll get big again!), knock/wash the soil off of the roots and pot them in the mix, keeping them in the appropriate light conditions till you leave (say it ain't so!!!). You can probably plant many of them in pots that are smaller than a gallon to save space. I can't imagine you're going to be successful getting a rose that's been growing in the ground into a one gallon pot! Even the roses that are planted up at Paulino's, which all come in bare root and which have the roots pruned significantly before being potted, are put into two gallon pots. If you're wrong about the regulations, you could put them into bigger pots. And you CAN prune the roots when you do them, but I'd definitely recommend doing it while they're still dormant--a/k/a, as soon as possible, and I'd cut the canes down pretty short too. The other thing you could try--and I've never done this--is to take cuttings and root them. I can't tell you how, but there have been a couple threads around here over the years telling how to do it. Now! About the 'Cherry bells'!!! You know I warned you about growing that--even in Nederland! If you really want to take a chunk of it with you, I'd recommend potting it up just like everything else--and then putting it in a BIG POT in it's new home! I very very, veryveryvery strongly recommend you don't plant it in the ground out there. If you plant that stuff in the ground in Oregon it will probably wind up being added to their Noxious Weed List---and it could very well get YOU banned from the state! ;-) You mentioned on another thread that we should get together before you leave! Darn right, girl! Your place or my place, doesn't matter to me, but I definitely want to get together with you sometime over the summer before you leave! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: State summaries of plant protection laws and regulations...See MoreHosta roots sprouted and bag-did I plant outside too soon?
Comments (14)Kathy, normally I'd agree with you because we all know hostas are just about invincible, but when you are talking about these bagged babies, it is a little different to my way of thinking....but then again, I'll admit that I do all sorts of things under the guise of gardening that a lot of other people don't! Lol. The shock of going from indoor conditions directly to the ground outdoors at this time of year...well, in zone 5 anything is possible....like the return to winter weather with little warning! I guess it might depend on how the up-to-now-pampered (being snug in peat moss and enclosed in plastic, indoors) roots would react as well. Proper hardening off is the key to success IMO....See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years agoMadPlanter1 zone 5
9 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years agoBabka NorCal 9b
9 years agobkay2000
9 years agosteeltowninwv
9 years agofunnthsun z7A - Southern VA
9 years agosteeltowninwv
9 years agoUser
9 years agoMadPlanter1 zone 5
9 years agofunnthsun z7A - Southern VA
9 years agoMary4b
9 years agosteeltowninwv
9 years ago
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