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Container Gardening

Can you ever pot up a plant that has been dug from the ground?

Heruga (7a Northern NJ)

5 years ago

I ask this because I hear that native soil and its pathogens should not enter in any potting mix at all. It will also make the mix more soggier with some native soil in it. And even if you attempt to remove all the soil and make it bare root there will still be some particles left over on it and bare rooting the plant can stress plants out... so how does this work? Only plants who have been in a pot for their whole life can be grown as container plants?

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Comments (4)

greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
5 years ago
I've done this many times, with many different species. The key is to repot at the proper time of year, which reduces the stress of barerooting and removing the native soil.

Josh
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
And the need for bare rooting completely is typically overstated, depending on the plant involved. I often remove small, underperforming plants from clients' gardens and pot them up, at least temporarily (sometimes permanently) and I have never had an issue with them. I also seldom, ever bare root them but do remove as much soil as can be easily removed from the rootball, usually by swishing them in a bucket of water.
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Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
Original Author
5 years ago
Ok well should one be concerned of any soil pathogens or any soil inhabiting insects entering in the mix? What is with everyone saying you shouldn't contaminate the potting mix with any native soil?
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
It's not a concern I worry about :-) The chances are very slight.

Potting soils are also referred to as 'soil-less mixes' - they contain no actual "dirt" :-) And the reason for that is not because it could harbor pathogens or insects (which can also become present in any potting soil mix as well) but because the texture and particle size of actual soil is not at all suited to the requirements of container culture. Garden/inground/top soils tend to be too fine a texture and too small a particle size to provide the porosity, proper aeration and fast drainage containers require. It is not so much a case of contamination as it is unsuitability.

There are interface issues when you leave a rootball grown in garden soil intact when you pot into a container - two different soil structures in close proximity alter water movement and and drainage. But you get the exact same thing when planting from a nursery potted plant into the ground. Ideally, this is something you want to avoid. But it doesn't necessarily require total elimination. It is up to the gardener how thorough or precise they want to be in this effort and how well they know their plants and gardening skills. IMO, it is not a critical aspect of container culture.....others may have a different opinion.

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