all right Mike McCrory here from Mike's
backyard nursery calm today I want to do
a real short video on the basics of
potting up a plant because you know
simple as it sounds it's easy to do it
wrong and if you've never done before
there are a few things that you probably
you know are going to want to be aware
of so let's start these are liners that
we these we stuck these in last summer
right just the bed working on up so we
suck these in yeah we stuck these in
June of 2016 so it's April 1st 2017 so
that's pretty much so you can see what
we stuck with a cutting about that long
right there this was new growth which is
kind of a good thing and a bad thing
it's alright but it's not the kind of
growth that we really want so first
thing I'm going to do I'm going to
gather up these roots in the ponytail
you'll see how much I got in my hand so
I've got a rush from here to here so
then right below my thumb I'm going to
whack those off now we've got a real
pretty root ball
same thing here actually though I want
to I'm going to and then I'm going to
take that top off because there's all
kinds of buds here so I want this plant
to fill out down low I don't want this
great big TV antenna thing up there
making branches way out there so same
thing let's take the top off first
leaves me with that this branch looks
like it's dead that one's dead that
one's dead so these have buds on them
same thing then I get a ponytail a plant
pretty much a handful and then a little
bit be careful don't cut your finger in
your thumb so give yourself plenty of
room there and don't be in a hurry and
then we'll do one more same thing this
one has got kind of like 2 litres so
we're just going to leaders not two
liters in a two liter bottle somebody
may ask that and right here okay Wow
so pop these things off the very first
thing
I'm going to do is I'm going to fill
this container with soil so I've only
got the soil almost to the top of this
container then I'm going to take this
plant I'm going to set it in there like
that spread the roots out best I can
I'm kind of a maniac potter so i
wouldn't I'm not going to spend any more
time spreading those works out than that
and then I'm going to pack it and I'm
going to fill it almost completely to
the top and then what we do we set them
aside and we grab a couple more pots can
because I'm ill prepared ill prepared to
make a movie anything all right I put
too much in so I'm just going to take a
handful out I'm like now I'm going to
make a little hole because I don't have
as much room as I wanted so I'm going to
push that down because I only want I'll
show you on this next plant or I put it
in there tack it down nice and tight
that way it doesn't settle because if
you don't pack it that will settle next
thing you know you only have that much
soil in your container now I only want
about this is the root crown right here
so I only want no more than an inch of
soil over that because that top layer
will dry out but if you have a plant
with a real long stem and you put it in
there too deep you're going to kill it
it's going to suffocate in the plant so
right here's the root crop so you want
to cover that with a botton inch to
three-quarters of an inch of soil
all right and a little too much so I'm
going to make a little hole in there
stick my plan in there like that
so what I do is I overfill it container
pack it down spread it around a little
bit so then what we do is we'll pop the
whole bunch of these maybe 10 15 line
them up on the bench and then we put 1 1
tablespoon of a slow-release fertilizer
in there the only one you're going to
probably find locally in the big-box
store is Osmocote triple 14 that's
Osmocote triple 14 it's a slow release
that takes three to four months to
release if you buy triple 14 garden
fertilizer you'll kill this overnight
you cannot use regular garden fertilizer
on potted containers you have to use
Osmocote triple 14 or another acceptable
slow release that's available to people
in the industry so we put a tablespoon
of fertilizer and then we shake a little
bit of pre-emergent weed control on
there to help control weeds which works
really really well so the retail product
is called preen we use snap shot if you
can find that that's a bit you know
that's what we use it's a commercial
product so all right the basics of
potting up small plants