Brown thumb grow

[Gingerbeard]

I thought you meant some great harm came to your prize.
Breaking leaves and/or branches is part of the game.

[Brwnthmb]

Gingerbeard
My prize pot is in the upper right corner in an 8” pot. I lost at least two bottom branches during repotting into a 3 gallon fabric pot. It’s struggling but it did survive. I just took its picture. 10pm bedtime.

[Brwnthmb]

@dirtymike
Terracotta is what I had

[Brwnthmb]

@dirtymike
Terracotta is what I had

[dirtymike]

You always grow in terracotta pots?

[Gingerbeard]

I was going to call it a cake icing knife.
My luthier tools are out getting a luth job.

[Gingerbeard]

You gave me a chill.
Is it too late to post a picture of your former prize?

[Brwnthmb]

Perfect blade. It is the bigger plant in post 16 I was referring to.
Don't repot post 19, yet.
That root ball will be small and airy and has not had a chance to ball-up, if you will.
Repotting is usually done when the roots have had a chance to fill the pot and the drip line has reached the edge of the pot. They hold together much better and do not stress the roots as much.
You are losing no root space keeping that plant in that pot, right now. Give it a bit.

thanks. I’m glad you stopped me in time, but just barely. I was trying to free the root ball and soil of 19 and decided to water it again and try tomorrow. The soil was breaking apart too much when I ran the blade around.
I was afraid you were referring to my prize plant in the 10” pot. The last prize plant I had is not one anymore due to repotting.

[Gingerbeard]

Perfect blade. It is the bigger plant in post 16 I was referring to.
Don't repot post 19, yet.
That root ball will be small and airy and has not had a chance to ball-up, if you will.
Repotting is usually done when the roots have had a chance to fill the pot and the drip line has reached the edge of the pot. They hold together much better and do not stress the roots as much.
You are losing no root space keeping that plant in that pot, right now. Give it a bit.

[Brwnthmb]

Gingerbeard
root ball “knife”

[Brwnthmb]

I can see that a plastic pot is a definite advantage when extracting a root ball.

[Brwnthmb]

Gingerbeard
I see. And it may interest you to know that I’m using a violin separation tool. A fiddle is about 8-1/2” wide. I do repair occasionally and so I have a tool on hand that is 9” long (plus the handle) and about 1” wide, that works real well for going down inside the wall of a flower pot.
Edit: PS. I doubt it is called a violin separation tool. In fact that tool would be short as it need not go all the way across. I don’t remember what this tool is called but if you are looking in luthier tools you can find it.

[Gingerbeard]

Separate the root ball from the pot. You said flexible piece of metal. I said knife.

[Brwnthmb]

@Gingerbeard
That is sort of what I tried, I mean the inverted pot with stem between my fingers. Hopefully the soil was just too dry.
When you say a knife works well to separate the root ball, what are you referring to exactly?

[Gingerbeard]

A knife works well to separate the root ball.
My method is to put my hand over the soil with the trunk between middle and ring fingers and invert the pot. A few taps on the bottom should loosen it.