Pricking out and Potting up

Pricking out and potting up are allied in that they are both methods of giving small plants more room – and nutrients – for growth.

When you sow seeds in a seed tray (or pot) you will have a great many plants growing very close together. They obviously need thinning out. This is done by transferring the small plants into seperate, larger pots. They will still be too small to plant in the garden and will need to be ‘grown on’. The way to seperate the plants is to first fill your new pots with compost.  Then using a small stick, carefully lift your young plant out of the seed tray. Hold the plant by its leaves, do not touch the root, you might damage it. Make to small hole in the new pot (a ‘dibber’ is useful for this, though a finger will do the trick, if you don’t mind soil under your nails). Place the plant in the hole and firm around it. Water it in – gently – it is very delicate at this point in its life . Then label it. You don’t want to forget what it is. This is called ‘Pricking out’.

Potting up is the next stage on from this. When your plants have filled up their pots with roots, then they need to be put into larger pots with more soil or compost.Doing this is called ‘potting up’. The way you do this is to get your larger pot, put compost in the bottom until your plant pot reaches to an inch or two below the top. (You leave this to make watering easier. ). Then take your plant from its pot, place it in the centre of the compost and fill the  side of the pot (to the level of the plant)with soil or compost being sure to press down on the sides so that there is no air pockets trapped in it.  Be sure to water the new pot well. If you are planting your plants into the garden, there is probably no reason to ‘pot on’. One other thing, some plants (like begonia) flower better if they are ‘root bound’. That means that the roots are filling the pot. The usual way to get round this is to have a plant pot which will keep the rots copntained but which will allow water and nutrients through.

When growing tomatoes or cucumbers in a greenhouse, then you will frin that you need to pot on your plants at least twice before they end up in the large pots or grow bags in which they will fruit. You pot on your plants into pots one size larger than the ones they are currently in. If you are growing your tomatoes or cucumbers in large pots, then they need to be grown either in garden compost or in grow bag compost. Multi purpose compost does not hav e enought nutrients in it to feed the planmts enough. Even if you do use the correct compost, they will still need feeding after six weeks or so.