Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-11-15
HOW TO POT PLANTS.

The first consideration IN potting
plants is to have the soil in suitable
ondition-neither too wet nor too dry,
Just in a friable condition. If too wet,
it will bake hard together, and prevent
the roots of the plant penetrating it
readily; if very dry, the ball will not
be of the proper frmness throughout,
and some difficulty will be found in
getting the water for the first two or
three waterings to go through it. The
pot should be perfectly clean, inside aud
out, and if it has been used before, it
should be we'll washed and dried before
using it again.
In shifting plant from smaller
into larger pot, take the neck of the
plant between the fore and middle fin
gers of the left hand, placing the bottom
of the pot III the right hand, turn it
upside down. and give the rim of the
pot two or three raps on the edge of
table or your potting bench; this will
loosen the ball, and then you can readily
lift the pot from it. AS general rule,
in shifting the plant from a smaller to
larger pos, select pot in which the
pot you are shifting from can stand
readily. Rooted cuttings should at first
have a two or three inch pot, and be
shifted from these as the pots become
full of roots, Potters usually advance
the size of their pots by an inch thus
there are two, three, four, five, six,
seven, and eight inch pots; above the
last size they advance by two inches,
the measurements being the internal
diameter of the rim. For ordinary
room plants, an eight-inch pot is as
large as can be conviently managed.
When geraniums, fuschias and similar
plants outgrow an eight-inch pot, they
should be taken out of it and have the
roots and top pruned back, and again
potted in the same-sized pot.
1t used to be the custom to place an
oyster shell or potsherd over the hole
in the bottom of the pot, in the idea
that it prevented the drainage from
being stopped up. 1t is now discarded
by the best cultivators. as it really pro-
duces the difficulty it was intended to
obviate, by greatly reducing the size of
the hole. If the hole gets stopped up,
it can readily be cleaned out with a
knife or sharp stick. When potting a
cutting, put little soil in the bottom
of the pot, then take the plant in your
left hand, and, letting the roots hang
loosely in the pot and keeping the neck
of the plant in the centre, with your
right hand or small trowel fill the
soil into the pot; bump the pot down
on the table or bench few times tc
settle the earth evenly, and then firmly
press it down with the thumbs, moi
filling the pot full, but leaving suffi
cient space at the top for watering. Il
the plant to be re-potted is an establish
Cd one, take it out of the pot in the way
already directed. and put it into one g
size larger. With the fingers Or blunt
pointed stick remove about half an inch
or more of the outside of the ball ; il
the roots are much matted, they may
be cut away on the outside with SHARP
knife; then. placing some soil in the
bottom Of the pot. put the plant in it
and then fill in the soil between the
ball and the pot, ramming it down mod
erately with blunt stick, making sure
that no vacancies are left. The surface
of the ball should be little below the
level of the top of the pot, Always b
careful to leave sufficient room at tht
surface for watering, but never bury tht
neck or collar of the plant in the soil
to do so is very injurious to many plants
especially azaleas. camellias, oranges
lemons, und other hard-wooded plants
After reporting your plants, place
them in a shady place. where they will
not be exposed to high, drying winds
and water them from watering-po
with fine rose, but do not give then
too much at once. Only give enough t
settle the soil if you give too much, i
makes the soil puddle, and makes i
hard when it dries out somewhat
Harper's Bazaar.