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My "Little" Repotting Project
by
KattywhampusLOL
(IC: homeowner)
2 Materials
$6
3 Days
Easy
Over the winter I have waited patiently to re-pot my overcrowded Aloe Vera plants and some of the Spider Plant babies that were growing so nicely in the kitchen. The time finally came. Athough I waited patiently, the plants did not; they had contuned over the winter to produce more babies. Between other household duties that I must tend to daily, and this too, it took me three days to re-pot the all of the plants because there were so many aloe babies. In fact, I had to stop re-potting in order to acquite more "pots" (LOL milk cartons), potting medium, and find a few folks willing to take some of them into their own homes once the re-potting was finished.
So, first I decided to pot up the most overcrowded aloe pot. Most of what you see there are babies crowded between a few larger "sisters." There are 3 large plants (about 8 inches tall each) that I call "the sisters" even though it is one momma and her first 2 babies. I plan on keeping them and hoping someone around here will want the others.
Some of the spider plant babies, and aloe that need repotting. I do hope to have enough containers for them all. I have 8 half gallon milk cartons and 4 large plastic coffee "cans," as well as these two regular plant pots and a very large ceramic coffee mug plant pot full of baby aloe, too.
This large ceramic coffee mug is as wide, each way, as a magazine is long, and about 7 inches deep. My daughter said she would take it off my hands and put it in her office if I plant BOTH an aloe plant or two in it together with a few spider plant babies. Okie dokie, there's 4 or 5 babies that have found a home :) The remaining pictures show you the steps taken and the final result.
Step 1 - Acquired the milk cartons and cut them in half.
2 - Inverted the cartons so the drainage spout was inside the bottom half.
3 - Lined each carton inside with a double layer of paper coffee pot filters in order to prevent as much soil loss as possible but allow excess water to drain through into the bottom.
4 - Put some multipurpose gravel into the plant's new "home"
5 - Mixed half potting medium for succulents with half potting medium for standard plants. Aloe doesn't requite as much drainage as cacti do, but prefer more drainage than some other plants, which is why I went with half-and-half.
6 - Eventually I ran out of milk cartons "pots," and coffee can "pots," and even used up the other regular potting pots that I had, and STILL had a few little babies that needed potting. My sister said "Just throw them out" and I gasped "NO WAY" and went into the cabinet, locating these chipped and cracked cups that were pushed way to the back. PERFECT for a baby or two ;)
I ended up with a grand total of 51 replants! I found homes for most of them, except for these, which now fill the twin-sized headboard in my kitchen and will, by this time next year, be over crowded and need repotting again. I have no idea who I am going to give them to next time, as everyone who accepted plants from me this year will also have babies next year that THEY will want to find homes for (or throw out). I truly HATE the idea of putting any hard working plant in the garbage (Aloe Vera for healing cuts and burns and Spider Plants for clean air). Well, I have a year to think about it and come up with a solution. NOW on to getting the proper PH soil mixed together for the fig tree I am planting, and then continue on with the dining room table I am trying to rebuild. WHEW! ;)
Enjoyed the project?
Suggested materials:
- A few old planter pots, plastic coffee cans, many half gallon milk containers, plants to be replanted
- Succulent planter mix, regular flower planter mix, multipurpose gravel, neighbors and daughter to take some repotted plants
Published May 8th, 2018 1:21 PM
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