Quality Potting Techniques

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Mar 15, 2004

Quality bedding plants require careful selection of potting media, and attention to the way the plugs and pots are subsequently potted and watered. Together, these 3 factors form an integral foundation for successful bedding plant growing. This article, part 2 of 3, deals with the potting techniques.

Quality Growing Media
Quality Potting Techniques
Quality Watering Techniques

Quality Potting Techniques
The way a gardener handles growing media can profoundly affect the final quality of the bedding plants. Even if all other factors, such as media formula, light, water, fertilizer, and temperatures are optimal, the potting process can make all the difference.

As mentioned in a previous article, air porosity is one of the key factors behind optimum root growth and ultimately the final quality of the bedding plants.

Pre-Moisten Growing Media.
Some growing media, such as peat moss sphagnum, coconut coir, and vermiculite absorb water and expand when wetted. When they expand inside a pot, the number of large pores is reduced and, in the process, the available water, and aeration is reduced. Aeration is required for the roots to perform gas exchange (take up oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide).

Instead water should be added to the growing media before potting, or placing in flats. I prefer to place some dry growing media in a small plastic bag ("baggie") and then gradually add a little water at a time. With your fingers, work the water thoroughly into the growing media through the bag, only when no big lumps are left should more water be added. Best results are obtained by adding water little by little.

By pre-wetting the growing media in the plastic bag, the media will later be able to wick moisture uniformly. Dry spots in the media are avoided which can result in root damage. This procedure should be used even if a wetting agent has been added to the growing mix.

Not a lot of water is needed to moisten the media in this way. The goal is a moist, not wet, media.

The Consistency of Moist Growing Media.
The consistency of the growing media after wetting should be damp, not wet. You can use the "squeeze test'. If you pick up a handful of damp growing media and squeeze it, it should hold together as in a ball when you open your hand, but when you touch the ball with your fingers it should easily break apart. If it does not hold together when you open your hand, it is too dry. If it does not crumble when touched, it is too wet. If squeezed hard, no water should drip from the media.