When to repot rosemary?

6 years ago

I finally have a sunny outdoor spot for a potted kitchen herb garden, so have been picking up the basics. I just got this Tuscan Blue rosemary, which is in a 7" pot and about 10" tall above soil level. As you can see, there's extensive root growth coming out of the holes in the bottom of the pot.

I'm planning to repot my herbs into 5-1-1 mix, and am wondering:

1. When would be the best time to repot perennial herbs (this rosemary, plus a small thyme and spearmint I recently bought as well)? Most advice on this forum is to wait till June - does that apply for herbs, even in the mild SF Bay Area climate?

2. Should these herbs get the root-pruning treatment as recommended in the repotting advice on this forum? The mint and thyme are much smaller and don't appear to be outgrowing their homes like the rosemary.

3. When can I start harvesting? Should I wait until I notice vigorous growth?

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)
6 years ago
In the Bay Area, with a few houseplant exceptions, I repotted any time I wanted. :)

I would definitely repot that rosemary. “Cleaning up” the roots and giving them a nice trim (rather than an entire legit root pruning) would be good, and giving it a significantly larger pot while you’re at it (or are you putting it in the ground?). You’ll have to ease up on watering compared to right now since you would have more soil to hold more water than now in its root-filled state.

You can take tip cuttings from all branches. Just pinch off what you need and you’re good to go.

I don’t like repotting mint so I usually go from seedling to final pot location. The thyme — repot as you would rosemary. I don’t recall any problems with repotting thyme.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
You can pot, pot up or repot whenever you want. The June caution is only for houseplants and even primarily directed at those growing tropicals and semi tropicals in colder climate areas.

I buy plants from time to time year round and pot them up when I receive them. Most never blink at this activity, although they may not immediately start to push out new growth. If very rooty and congested, I slice off the bottom 1/2 inch or so of the root ball and loosen the sides as best I can. Sometimes it takes sluicing the root ball around in a bucket of water to properly loosen the roots and clean off the remaining soil.
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Cutting back top growth when you transplant or root prune to offset root loss is kind of an old school concept that has lost favor by most horticulturists. It is the top growth that provides energy to the roots for rapid regeneration, even more so with evergreen plants like rosemary, so cutting back the top growth should be minimized. OTOH, rosemary is a pretty tough plant and frequent pruning for culinary purposes doesn't faze it so I would not be overly concerned about your cutting back the top. However, you should not need to do any further top pruning at this point.
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Zone rating is only one of many variables... some plants are genetically strong enough to withstand extremes that might kill a different plant of the same variety. Or, a winter in a given area can be much more damaging than normal in a given year. So, in essence, there are many factors involved... and nothing is really set in stone. Each gardening zone is comprised of many different micro climates, so different growers within the same zone can report very different results. Weather patterns can change, and there are really many factors to take into account. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the ratings for your plants... I would hate for you to lose them because you weren't. It's sometimes difficult to gauge a person's level of gardening expertise on the forum, but I'm glad to hear that you know. :-) Al's idea of covering them with a cardboard box for extra protection against any frigid drafts might help... although, it might be to the plants' benefit to simply invest in another light setup. And since your particular garage is a bit warmer than most, it's possible that you could winter such plants over successfully. The option is entirely yours. I winter over a lot of plants in a large unheated garage, but it gets closed when the plants go in, and doesn't get opened until early spring. I also use plastic baby pools to group the plants and keep them off the concrete floor. I'm talking about plants rated for my zone, though, which is 5b... a few are rated for zone 6, but not many. They spend their dormant period enclosed in the building, no frigid drafts or sudden changes in temperature. Anyway... it's a fine looking Rosemary! I've never had much success growing that particular plant. I always seem to get heavy infestations of spider mites before I notice, and the air in my home is so dry that they drop most of the needles.
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Donna, the pot size depends on what kind of plant you have. Since you mentioned Rob's I assume these are mini or semi mini. This type of AV should always be in a 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inch pot for a lifetime. If they get over eight inches circumference, just take off a row of leaves. Should these plants be standards from Ma's collections, the plant will need to go up to a 3 or 3 1/2 when roots fill the pot. Take the plant out of the pot. If roots are full, put it into a larger pot. Although I'm sure soil mix from Rob's is excellent, I would repot it with your own because with your own mix, plants should act the same as those you already have. If you keep Rob's mix you may have to water more or less than usual. Nancy
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Hi Flora, If it's not outdoors, I just don't have any other options beyond "the temp we keep the house," which is 70F when we're up & about, 60F when we're away at work, and 65F while we're sleeping. On the plus side, this plant did survive indoors last year, and it wasn't nearly as healthy when it started, nor was it in the sunniest window available. Because of this, I'm hopeful. It was somewhat pale and spindly-looking by the end of it, mind you, but by golly, it was alive, and several months of outdoor sunshine did wonders for its health. It's positively thriving now. One of the upstairs rooms might be somewhat cooler, at least some of the time, but there's also the danger of "out of sight, out of mind" and it could get ignored, never get watered, and die that way. I think one of the things that kept it alive last Winter was that it was in the kitchen, poor light and all, but that meant we saw it every day, and if it looked horribly dry, it got watered. This is a difficult problem, to be certain, but last year's success (my first ever) keeps me optimistic.
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Jesse (SF Bay Area - 10A)
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks - super helpful! I'll probably wait until this cool/rainy weather breaks and repot the herbs when we get a sunny stretch.

Also, just to make sure I undestand, are you saying that even for houseplants (incl tropicals), there's no need to wait till June to repot? I'm a little unclear on why your climate zone would matter to houseplants in a climate-controlled environment. I've been in plenty of homes in colder climate areas that are kept hotter throughout the winter than my home in CA.

Maybe this is worthy of a new thread on the houseplants board?
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I think it is due mostly to the fact that their growth season is different than is typical for more temperate hardy plants....... late spring/early summer into late fall or early winter. Little if any dormant period. And most plants from temperate climates - like the rosemary - start their growth quite early.

I repot whenever I get to it or the need arises - the calendar does not play much of a factor nor have I seen it have much of an impact :-) I tend to do much of my repotting of any outdoor containers in spring - I certainly do not wait until June - that is far to late in the season!! But if I need to do a lot of root pruning, I generally will do so earlier, as the plant is just about to emerge from dormancy. But even that is situation-dependent. I have done root pruning in midsummer as well and with equal success.
User
6 years ago
That whole wait till June thing is ridiculous. Even for z5-6 houseplants. It would just be like planting anything.. As long as the weather is good go for it. I'll be repotting my rosemary in a couple weeks. I don't want to disturb all the flowers right now.

When to repot rosemary?

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Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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When to repot rosemary?

Comments (5)

Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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Jesse (SF Bay Area - 10A)Original Author

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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Jesse (SF Bay Area - 10A)
Original Author