Repot a small schefflera
Hi @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)! In August, I planted a schefflera cutting. The pot was very small and I have now had to repot it (you can see the two pots). I tried to remove the soil but it was practically impossible because I think the roots compact it. How could I ever remove the old soil from a 2-3 meter tall ficus benjamin?
Comments (7)
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last year
annpat
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HELP - repotting Schefflera arboricola 'Variegata'
Comments (12)Sorry hadda run off like that.....Moby was playing (don't know if you know him, but has sentimental value.... : ) As far as falling off a truck, I doubt it. It's in a pot like anyone would repot a plant in. Has one of those 'connected' bottoms so water sits in it unless you tip it sideways. Friend said it just looked like someone just threw it out in front of their house and I can't imagine why no one grabbed it up before him. Maybe like an eviction situation? I never really got details. Just know I know plants and this poor guy had been laying out there for at least a month. That's how HARD he'd tried to grow upright. He was downright 90º angled up to the sun from his pot. Friend did good taking care of him, getting him growing right, except for turning after he'd righted himself. Like I said, we were of two minds on that one. Friend grew up on a farm so I imagine he was used to only natural growth. I tried to teach him about consistently rotating plants, but to no avail. Probably why this guy STILL looks so funky. But that's part of his charm. I will definitely try to take pics outdoors tomorrow. We're calling for low 50's, which is really GREAT for our time of year (VA east coast, near Va. Beach). I see we're on opposite coasts. But I know our weather is MUCH different. In fact, if you don't mind me asking a non-plant related question.....why is it when I watch TV shows filmed on the CA coast that one person has on a sweater and long pants yet another has on a tank top and shorts? I mean, we have strange weather here where one day you wear shorts and flip-flops and the next you need a sweatshirt. But (and I know it's TV) from what I can see, people in your area have all kinds of different clothing on all on the same day??? Plus, I see shows with real estate with the homes with no screens in the windows? Don't you have bugs? We have nasty mosquitoes, being so close to swamp lands and wet lands (which I guess you don't have??) If this is too "off topic" feel free to email me in detail. This has been a question I have been wanting to ask for soooo long now and never knew where to ask it. Didn't want to Google.....ha ha ha. Bonnie aka brit5467...See MoreBuying a small Schefflera
Comments (6)Yes, there are a few out there -- I got one in a 6-inch pot for like $20 or $25 a while back -- but they're rare. Where I work, we're never offered any Schefflera actinophyllas that aren't already at least four feet tall (post-markup, that winds up in the neighborhood of $50-60). I have no very good theories for why this would be the case. The plant I got (from a different place, not where I work) is a good ten to fifteen small plants all mashed together, which makes me think that the issue might be fullness: actinophylla just isn't naturally a very full, dense plant, and one stem per pot maybe just doesn't look good enough to sell well. On my plant, some of the petioles are longer than the plant is tall, which looks goofy. Best theory I got. [shrug] I suspect this might also have something to do with why arboricola is as popular as it is. Its willingness to variegate factors in there too (if actinophylla has variegated forms, I've never seen them), but it's also naturally more bushy, and is sellable in a bigger range of sizes....See MoreShould I re-pot the Schefflera?
Comments (4)I hope I didn't really screw up... I feel bad I didn't follow the directions properly and may have really messed up this schef. Once I took it out of the large pot, it was not what I expected, as you saw in the photo the root ball was tiny compared to the pot, less than 1/5 of the size of the pot. After examination, the roots in the ball there was (as shown in the photo) were not all that substantial. I think that the roots have been rotting away in this wet slop of a soil that barely drained. I decided I had no choice but to get it out of this soil that it was drowning in. I cleaned off the root ball and put it in the new Turface, Pine Bark, and Perlite gritty mix I just made. All went well, fertilizing and transplanting. I also added a mycorrhizal product to the roots. Then.... perhaps I should skip this part, this is the bad part of my day. I tried to bring it back into the house myself. It had such minimal roots that it didn't hold in the gritty mix that well. It fell out of the pot, down a couple step and hit the ground. Amazingly, It appears to not have suffered any physical damage. I moved the pot in, then brought in the schefflera. I re-planted it in the pot in place. It would not stay standing on it's own, I didn't get it buried quite as deep as I had it when I was outside. All I could think to do was to place some #3 grit around it, thinking the #3 is large enough that it would not cause a problem with it being on the top of the mix. So it is held in place now with the grit. Only time will tell how much damage or perhaps if I am very lucky, good I have caused. Looking on the bright side, perhaps I saved it from upcoming death from root rot and it will like it's new mix despite the trama. I did not prune it and will leave it un pruned until next summer as advised. I have to go apologize to my plant some more. :-( Thanks Jamie...See MoreQuestions on repotting and discoloration/growth? on small lemons.
Comments (2)Thank you Denise, the pot that I have for it is plastic. I had read just as you stated of the build up issue. I also think the weight difference will help when it is time to move it again. They are closer to four and five years and have been potted in their present state for three. This is why I was planning this last year, so I know that they are long overdue. You are probably correct in your reasoning of lack of blossoms, it was in a different location that did not receive the same amount of light and the soil was not the same as the other trees that did bear some fruit. Again, thank You so much for sharing and helping....See Morefloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last yearken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 months ago"Fashion" has nothing to do with the repotting process, but science does. Potting up leaves almost all the root congestion to continue as a limiting factor, so it allows the plant to grow at a rate and level of vitality a little closer to its genetic potential. A full repot, which includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of grow medium, entirely eliminates all limitations associated with root congestion. Root congestion can, and eventually will rob the plant of nearly 100% of it's potential in terms of growth, vitality, and its ability to defend itself against disease pathogens and insect herbivory.
If you do a side by side comparison of 3 schefflera cuttings from the same plant, you'll find the one that is left to languish in the pot it came in will likely be dead within 2-4 years. The one potted up will likely survive but not even come close to thriving. The plant that is repotted and root pruned regularly will be many times larger after 5 years (if the others are still viable), and will be much more healthy, fuller, and appealing to the eye than the others.
"SOIL" is any solid medium a plant will grow in or is growing in. There is nothing to differentiate between the term soil, grow medium, potting medium, potting soil. I try to use the term "grow medium" when discussing container soils, but soil science covers container media too. If "soil" is good enough for the soil scientist, it should be good enough for the hobby grower.
Most houseplants do best in a medium that after being watered copiously, has no or a minimal fraction of the medium completely full of water. The water that occupies the spaces between soil particles (perched water) is the water that does the damage. Under conventional container culture, no plant likes to be wet. Damp? Moist? Yes, but not wet or soggy. Saturated soil robs plants of the oxygen essential to root metabolic processes/functions and should be avoided. It kills fine roots and forces the plant to regenerate the roots killed before normal growth can resume. This repetitive cycle of death and regeneration of fine roots is how soggy soils rob plants of immense fractions of their potential for growth and vitality. Top growth stops so the plant can devote energy to regeneration of roots lost to soil saturation. About the time when enough air has returned to the soil as the soil solution is used or evaporates, the grower waters again, perpetuating the cycle.
@Michele Rossi To remove the soil from the roots, you can swish the roots in a tub of water and tease the soil out of the roots with a root pick you can make from a 1/4" dowel rod b y sharpening it in a pencil sharpener. For use as a root pick, blunt the tip slightly and lightly char it over a gas flame to harden the wood. See below, bottom row second from right, and bottom row 4th from right, Both are homemade from a wood dowel rod and a piece of 1/4" nylon. A toothbrush can also be fashioned into a shorter version. The wood dowel, without the charring, works great as a "tell", used to "tell" you when it's time to water.
Al
Michele Rossi
10 months agoIn July 2022 I put accidentally broken leaves from a mother plant into water (I know @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) doesn't like cuttings in water). In a few weeks the roots grew and after mid-August I planted the cutting (photo 1). Two months ago, as I wrote to you, I changed the vase and now everything seems to be fine (photo 2).
Many months ago I planted other leaves in the ground, without even putting them in water and they have been still for months (photo 3): maybe some are missing the meristematic apex and therefore cannot develop or am I saying something incorrect?
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)