Help me clean my plants!

[Puma23]

I just picked up two plants that i know are safe for chams and i bought a large bag of organic potting soil...

Please tell me in detail how to clean and re-pot these plants im sorry for being so naive about this but every time i plant something i die haha

 

[jannb]

Wash your plants with warm soapy water and rinse well. Repot in your organic soil and either sift your soil or put LARGE river rock on top so they want eat the soil....if you sift it, it's ok for them to eat it.

 

[kenya]

What I do is get a two buckets of warm water and go outside. knock as much old soil off of the roots of a plant as you can and then swish the roots around in one bucket of water to get the rest of the old dirt off. Dunk the top leafy bit of the plant in the other bucket and then use a mild dish soap on it. rub it down and wash it like you would wash a dog- thoroughly and really get it rubbed around. You can then dip it into the clean bucket of water and swish it around. Rinse it off in the bathtub or with a hose to get all of the soap off.

Now you get to repot. Get an appropriately sized pot and give it a rinse. I like to use styrofoam in the bottom- break up chunks from packing material or just use old packing peanuts. Put a light layer- about and inch to two deep and then put a layer of organic soil on top of that. Put your plants roots in when the base of the plant (where soil will start) is level with where your soil will be (hope that made sense) put organic dirt in around the roots and pack it in. Fill the rest of your pot and then top the soil off with smooth river stones to keep chams and feeders out.

The styrofoam gives the plant good drainage and reuses a generally useless, non recyclable material. The stones keep your cham and bugs out! The stones also look nice.

 

[Puma23]

Yay

doing it now!

 

[Dsignrguy]

What I do is get a two buckets of warm water and go outside. knock as much old soil off of the roots of a plant as you can and then swish the roots around in one bucket of water to get the rest of the old dirt off. Dunk the top leafy bit of the plant in the other bucket and then use a mild dish soap on it. rub it down and wash it like you would wash a dog- thoroughly and really get it rubbed around. You can then dip it into the clean bucket of water and swish it around. Rinse it off in the bathtub or with a hose to get all of the soap off.

Now you get to repot. Get an appropriately sized pot and give it a rinse. I like to use styrofoam in the bottom- break up chunks from packing material or just use old packing peanuts. Put a light layer- about and inch to two deep and then put a layer of organic soil on top of that. Put your plants roots in when the base of the plant (where soil will start) is level with where your soil will be (hope that made sense) put organic dirt in around the roots and pack it in. Fill the rest of your pot and then top the soil off with smooth river stones to keep chams and feeders out.

The styrofoam gives the plant good drainage and reuses a generally useless, non recyclable material. The stones keep your cham and bugs out! The stones also look nice.

This is what I do, but for larger plants I use a 30 gallon + trashcan instead of buckets.