How do i perform a transplant?

i am a first time grower and i recently over-fertilized my plants. i flushed them yesterday and they are looking good today. i am using really small pots with crappy soil and i wanna transplant them into bigger pots with better soil (fox farm). i wanna know if it is ok to transplant a day after flushing and i also need advice on how to go about the transplant. i have never done it before and i am nervous i will screw it up. what are some good transplanting methods.

It's best to transplant when the soil is relatively dry. The method I use is to fill the base of the new pot with soil, then gently squeeze around the edges of the old pot, so the soil comes away from the sides. Then, I grab the stalk of the plant, whilst pushing up on the base of the pot. If you have enough of a root ball, and the soil is dry enough, it should all come out as one piece.

Put the plant's rootball into the new pot, then fill up the sides with soil, pressing it down into the gaps at the sides to ensure that there are no large pockets of air. Don't pack it in too firmly though, just enough to fill the area with the soil, not to compact it.

Water the new pot thoroughly, and add any extra soil that may be needed over the next couple of waterings, as the soil may compact slightly as it settles into place.

well everyone has their own way of transplanting. Im sure you are aware that you want the least amount of stress on the plants as possible. I should be able to give you a couple ways to do so.


First you wanna make sure you drown the plant in water to make sure your plant is hydrated to reduced stress. Just let it ride for a few minutes and then loosen up the dirt around the pot. Make sure to keep the structure of the soil. Keeping all the roots intact you want to dump the dirt out instead of pulling the plant out this should help keep the roots safe. Now here is where you can choose which you want to do about transplanting. You can go ahead and transplant the new plant into the soil and make sure you water after u do so. OR you can kinda of shake off the dirt and soak it some more in water or super thrive for 15-20 minutes this could help reduced stress on the plant. If you do it this way make sure you still water after you put back into the dirt to help it love its new home.

Either way be sure to remember try to do this in a darker area. You do not really want the root to come into contact with light. Maybe cover the roots while soaking if you choose to do it this way. Transplanting suck and i have done it many times with many different kinda of plants and I still lose plants.

well i guess we both have differnt techniques he likes to keep the soil dry i like to make it wet..dont wanna confuse you.. :/ lol

Quickee said:

well i guess we both have differnt techniques he likes to keep the soil dry i like to make it wet..dont wanna confuse you.. :/ lol

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i think im gonna go with the wet soil method. not sure why. ive read compelling arguments for each method but i like the wet soil method better fo some reason.

I WOULD WAIT A FEW DAYS , FOR YOUR PLANTS TO REST, YOU SAID THAT YOU FLUSHED THEM. WHEN YOU THINK IT IS TIME TO WATER THEM AGAIN, POTS ARE DRY, THEN IS THE TIME TO TRANSPLANT. I PUT A LITTLE BIT OF NEWSPAPER IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NEW POT , TO KEEP THE DIRT FROM FLOWING OUT. ON TOP OF THE NEWSPAPER I PUT A SMALL LAYER OF HYDROTON EXPANDED CLAY (HELPS TO DRAIN) THEN ADD YOUR SOIL MIX , MAKE SURE IT HAS PLENTY OF PERLITE IN IT , FOR GOOD DRAINAGE, SPRAY THE SOIL TILL IT IS MOIST . TAKE YOUR PLANT, PLACE YOUR HAND AROUND THE STEM, PALM DOWN ON THE SOIL , TURN THE POT UPSIDE DOWN AND GIVE THE BOTTOM OF THE POT A FEW WHACKS WITH YOUR FREE HAND , THE ENTIRE ROOT MASS AND SOIL BALL SHOULD FALL RIGHT OUT OF THE POT , JUST PLACE IT INTO THE NEW POT AND ADD SOIL TO FILL THE POT, WATER WITH PLAIN WATER THE FIRST TIME THEN SLOWLY ADD NUTES THROUGH THE FOLLOWING WATERINGS. THAT'S THE WAY i DO IT ANYWAY, WORKS FOR ME.

Quickee said:

Transplanting suck and i have done it many times with many different kinda of plants and I still lose plants.

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I have never lost a plant due to transplanting, and in all honesty, I have never even seen the effects of "transplant shock" that so many people mention. I literally just pull the dry rootball, with all the old soil still attached, then dump it in the new soil straight away, and water it in thoroughly.

I have 100% success rate like this.

llLOU said:

I WOULD WAIT A FEW DAYS , FOR YOUR PLANTS TO REST, YOU SAID THAT YOU FLUSHED THEM. WHEN YOU THINK IT IS TIME TO WATER THEM AGAIN, POTS ARE DRY, THEN IS THE TIME TO TRANSPLANT. I PUT A LITTLE BIT OF NEWSPAPER IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NEW POT , TO KEEP THE DIRT FROM FLOWING OUT. ON TOP OF THE NEWSPAPER I PUT A SMALL LAYER OF HYDROTON EXPANDED CLAY (HELPS TO DRAIN) THEN ADD YOUR SOIL MIX , MAKE SURE IT HAS PLENTY OF PERLITE IN IT , FOR GOOD DRAINAGE, SPRAY THE SOIL TILL IT IS MOIST . TAKE YOUR PLANT, PLACE YOUR HAND AROUND THE STEM, PALM DOWN ON THE SOIL , TURN THE POT UPSIDE DOWN AND GIVE THE BOTTOM OF THE POT A FEW WHACKS WITH YOUR FREE HAND , THE ENTIRE ROOT MASS AND SOIL BALL SHOULD FALL RIGHT OUT OF THE POT , JUST PLACE IT INTO THE NEW POT AND ADD SOIL TO FILL THE POT, WATER WITH PLAIN WATER THE FIRST TIME THEN SLOWLY ADD NUTES THROUGH THE FOLLOWING WATERINGS. THAT'S THE WAY i DO IT ANYWAY, WORKS FOR ME.

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I think this isthe best method I have transplanted thousands of plants and not one of them has died. something else I would like to add though is that when you pull the plant out of the small container massage the roots to break up any roots that may be spiraling around the sides and the bottom of the pot if the plant really root bound use a knife and cut the roots vertically to loosen them up.

You should never lose a plant to transplanting unless it was very sick and marginal to begin with. I do both wet and dry. I do "dry" when I have a root ball that fully occupies the pot and will come out as a whole as Nocturn3 described. I tease apart matted roots LIGHTLY with a fork and place into my next pot or hole taking care to pack soil thoroughly around the plant to assure soil/root contact with no big air gaps. Water thoroughly. For very small plants that haven't really filled the pot, I prefer a good pre-transplant soak, 'cause usually what I'm trying to do is get these guys away from a problem (hot soil, or other soil problems). Their roots won't hold the soil in any case and my goal is to have as little of the problem soil come with it as possible.

In either case, I've had plants fall over completely to ground from "transplant shock", so that's real. However, in almost every case, they're fully back on their feet within 1-3 hours.

Oh, and make sure you place the plant at the same depth as it came out of... (unless you're trying to address "stretch", in which case you can plant an inch or so deeper and use the soil to firm things up).