One of the first things I was very keen to do was to re-pot my plant.
I had some valuable help in trying to understand how I should do this. My gardening background can be assumed to be non-existent. I did not have a clue what type of soil etc would be the right thing to do for this so I had a couple of sources of help.
Firstly, the internet.
Secondly, my father. Ivor. He grows Bonsai trees and thought that many of the principles were the same. Time will tell I guess...
These are the golden rules that I gleaned in my information gathering stage.
1) The soil needs to be well draining
2) The roots should not get wet
So, with this in mind I went with the following mix of stuff in my new pot
A peat based potting compost.
Some sand.
A handful of some grit that my Dad said would be good.
Some fertilising pellets that were derived from Chicken Poo and stank.
Some other fertiliser pellets that I found amongst my Dad's bonsai stuff.
This was all put into a pot that was a) larger than the one I bought the plant in and b) had a hole in the bottom to allow it to drain.
In order to further optimise the draining process (that I am now convinced is the key to this whole endeavour) I put a piece of broken pottery over the hole and a few large pebbles at the bottom of the pot.
I transferred the plant (being referred to as "Colin" by pretty much everyone now) and drenched the soil once - noting how efficiently it seemed to drain - and then a second time with some water with liquid plant fertilizer in it (Baby Bio).
That's it. Done!
I still have fears about the dryness of my house. He currently is going to live on a windowsill in the kitchen. I will let him out to get a bit of indirect sunlight during the day but with winter coming I think he is going to stay indoors quite a bit.![]()
I had some valuable help in trying to understand how I should do this. My gardening background can be assumed to be non-existent. I did not have a clue what type of soil etc would be the right thing to do for this so I had a couple of sources of help.
Firstly, the internet.
Secondly, my father. Ivor. He grows Bonsai trees and thought that many of the principles were the same. Time will tell I guess...
These are the golden rules that I gleaned in my information gathering stage.
1) The soil needs to be well draining
2) The roots should not get wet
So, with this in mind I went with the following mix of stuff in my new pot
A peat based potting compost.
Some sand.
A handful of some grit that my Dad said would be good.
Some fertilising pellets that were derived from Chicken Poo and stank.
Some other fertiliser pellets that I found amongst my Dad's bonsai stuff.
This was all put into a pot that was a) larger than the one I bought the plant in and b) had a hole in the bottom to allow it to drain.
In order to further optimise the draining process (that I am now convinced is the key to this whole endeavour) I put a piece of broken pottery over the hole and a few large pebbles at the bottom of the pot.
I transferred the plant (being referred to as "Colin" by pretty much everyone now) and drenched the soil once - noting how efficiently it seemed to drain - and then a second time with some water with liquid plant fertilizer in it (Baby Bio).
That's it. Done!
I still have fears about the dryness of my house. He currently is going to live on a windowsill in the kitchen. I will let him out to get a bit of indirect sunlight during the day but with winter coming I think he is going to stay indoors quite a bit.
