Little Acers

I bought a couple of Acers in Morrisons about a month ago. They are in quite small pots and I feel they are getting top heavy and look as though they need to be repotted. Is this a good time?

S

 

I repotted some three weeks ago and they've all produced new leaf since.

 

I have a little Beni Schichihengi which i got 2 years ago about 5 inches tall in a 3" pot and the bloke, an Acer specialist, said to pot up only in the next size pot to keep the growth compact and maintain the colour. Did this last year but nothing much happened so i put in a much larger pot this year and it's taking off pretty nicely.

 

If its top heavy, but not ready to pot-on, you could put the pot in a larger one, and fill the "outer" under and round [the inner] with gravel, that will give it a larger, more stable, base.

 

whats the difference in planting in a large pot versus one size larger? .... I still don't fully understand the concept

if you plant it in the garden, it has no restrictions as to pot size ... so whats the difference in planting it in a large pot staright away?

 

Water retention. Put a plant with a small root system in a large pot, add some water, there is lots of water stored in the compost in the pot. That will restrict the amount of air/gas that reaches the roots.

In a smaller pot the plant will "drink" the water quickly enough that gas flow is restored. In a large pot it will be harder to get that balance right.

Secondly, the roots will form a good rootball in the small pot, when you pot on they will head for the perimeter - if you put the plant in a big pot you won't get such a well-formed rootball as you would have repeatedly potting-on.

In "open ground" the whole dynamic of water retention is different - drainage and water pressure come from below, and all sides, so things generally learn to cope, but if you are growing a plant to live in a pot then I think that potting-on is better than straight into a large pot. Depends on the plant of course, something really vigorous, or a pond-marginal, will have no/little problems. Something prone to root-rot is more likely to rot if over-potted too young.

 

good post and has answered some of my queries

now for something new .... try using an airpots sometime for your special plants ... add decent compost that drains well (and has perlite)...

I potted two Alocasia Mayan Mask recently ... they arrived with small roots ... I potted them up in 3 litre airpots (they are large and measure nearly a foot tall and 17 cm wide

I planted them out in aarden this week .... I was amazed at the roots ... when I opened the pot (it folds open), roots were all around ... and from top to bottom .... the 2nd Mayan Mask was always a bit smaller, but the roots were 3/4 way down the pot

 

Thank you all for your posts. I took a chance at the weekend and put them into bigger, but still smallish, pots. So far, they seem to have settled in.

S