Repot just top half?

[stolbert89]

Just curious, do most of you replace all of the soil of store bought plants or do you repot just the top half? I thought to replace all, but after reading the care sheet posted on the forum it said to repot just the top half. Planning on putting large rocks on the top anyways so if I can get away with having some fertilizer on the bottom for faster plant growth I will. But if not then I have no problem replacing all of the soil.

Thanks in advance!

 

[pigglett79]

It depends on whether the plant will be set on the bottom of the cage or if its hanging from the top. You could get away with just repotting the top if its sitting on the floor of the cage. I repot my hanging plants completely because I have seen my boys drink drips from the bottoms of the pot before.

 

[stolbert89]

Ok thanks for the response! I'll just replace all of the soil.

 

[melble68]

I've had issues in the past w/ knats, so I do this to all my plants now when they're going into my screen cages. Here's the process.

1. remove as much original soil away from the root ball
2. add layer of rocks in the bottom of pot (approximate 1")
3. add layer of play sand over the rocks
4. add layer of 50/50 high quality potting soil and vermiculite
5. place plant on top of these layers
6. fill in around root ball w/ 50/50 mix
7. add layer of weed block over the root ball and 50/50 mix
8. add additional 1 to 1.5" layer of play sand
9. completely cover with river rock

This is just what I do because my drippers go crazy and drip right down thru my live plants and mostly go into the soil. The rocks, sand, and 50/50 mix are awesome at drainage. Since the past 9 months of doing this, my plants aren't sitting in soaked soil, I have no knats, and my schefflera's and ficus's look great.