Dr Kynes
Well-Known Member
well cleaning the old paint out of that 5 gallon bucket real good and knocking a few drain holes in the bottom will work, then take the bucket (if the holes are big enough to keep you from carrying dirt, they are too big) and a shovel out to the woods and get you some dirt from under a big leafy tree (not a pine needley tree)
dig down good, and get loose dark soll from a few inches under the surface, bust up the chunks to make it smooth, then top it off with some of the leafy loamy stuff from the bottom of natural leaf piles. stir it all together then fill your bucket and walk home. when you get home repot your plant by digging out (and saving) the excess dirt from the bucket intill it looks like the whole pot you are using will fit in the hole.
wet the whole bucket of dirt down well, dont make mud, just make it damp. a little water should come out the holes in the bottom.
grab your plant at the base of the main stem and lay the pot on its side. tap the pot all around to loosen the plant and it's root ball, then slowly but firmly pull the pot untill it drags away from the plant (dont drag sluggo, drag the pot)
massage sluggo's roots to losen em up. they will look like a bird's nest at the bottom. once the roots are opened up a little and your rootball no longer has a distinctly pot-shaped form (but do it quickly, no more than a 5 minutes out of the dirt) put sluggo in her new home
bury her root ball all the way to the top of the stem, if the stem/root junction is higher than the bucket top, pull her out digg a little deeper and put her back in.
water her in really good, till water drains out of the bottom of the pot
give plain water around the edge of the pot (dont water the plant, water the bucket) then water normally. with a really deep bucket sticking a fingerr in doesnt work no more, so you gotta pick up the bucket to judge water content by weight.
when you carriy the dirt back from the woods the bucket will weight maybe 20 pound at most, when well watered it should weigh almost double. when the bucket feels light water sluggo's dirt real good (remember youre watering dirt, not the plant, the plant will water itself from wet dirt)
no nutrients for at least a week let sluggo reach for the fresh dirt
the holes in the bottom of the bucket should be about 1/2 inch, and there should be at around 5 of them evenly spaced . 4 around the outside edge of the bucket 1 in the center.
dig down good, and get loose dark soll from a few inches under the surface, bust up the chunks to make it smooth, then top it off with some of the leafy loamy stuff from the bottom of natural leaf piles. stir it all together then fill your bucket and walk home. when you get home repot your plant by digging out (and saving) the excess dirt from the bucket intill it looks like the whole pot you are using will fit in the hole.
wet the whole bucket of dirt down well, dont make mud, just make it damp. a little water should come out the holes in the bottom.
grab your plant at the base of the main stem and lay the pot on its side. tap the pot all around to loosen the plant and it's root ball, then slowly but firmly pull the pot untill it drags away from the plant (dont drag sluggo, drag the pot)
massage sluggo's roots to losen em up. they will look like a bird's nest at the bottom. once the roots are opened up a little and your rootball no longer has a distinctly pot-shaped form (but do it quickly, no more than a 5 minutes out of the dirt) put sluggo in her new home
bury her root ball all the way to the top of the stem, if the stem/root junction is higher than the bucket top, pull her out digg a little deeper and put her back in.
water her in really good, till water drains out of the bottom of the pot
give plain water around the edge of the pot (dont water the plant, water the bucket) then water normally. with a really deep bucket sticking a fingerr in doesnt work no more, so you gotta pick up the bucket to judge water content by weight.
when you carriy the dirt back from the woods the bucket will weight maybe 20 pound at most, when well watered it should weigh almost double. when the bucket feels light water sluggo's dirt real good (remember youre watering dirt, not the plant, the plant will water itself from wet dirt)
no nutrients for at least a week let sluggo reach for the fresh dirt
the holes in the bottom of the bucket should be about 1/2 inch, and there should be at around 5 of them evenly spaced . 4 around the outside edge of the bucket 1 in the center.
