Winter seems like the perfect time for indoor gardening but your houseplants would be happier if you left them alone. 

April, May and June are the best time of year for houseplant repotting. 

From April the days are longer than the night, average temperatures are higher and your plants will be growing actively. Theses are the perfect conditions for repotting but only if necessary. 

These conditions start to reverse after mid summer’s longest day and by the end of July your house plants won’t have time to root into the new compost. More later on. 

Repotting when the days are short, average temperatures lower at times of little growth can damage the your houseplants root due to the extra compost retaining too much cold water.

When you repot any plant you may be doubling the volume of compost in the your new pot even though the pot might only be the next size up. 

This becomes critical in winter. This extra compost can hold a lot of cold water and this can damage the roots of your freshly re-potted plant.

This will ‘make’ you increase the watering to overcome this wilting, but unfortunately this makes the problem worse. The plant is in fact short of water because the damaged roots can’t take up water as normal. 

Re-potting in April helps overcome these winter watering issues because your plants are ready to grow new roots in the warmer temperatures. Also the longer days enable your plants to evaporate (transpire) extra water. 

We recommend avoiding repotting after the end of July. This allows your houseplants roots to grow and fill the new compost before groups slows in September. This helps avoid over watering and root damage. 

To enable your plants to grow quickly after repotting water the plant before hand, ‘pot on’ into the new pot of compost but keep the new compost as dry as it comes out of a fresh bag. This means the roots have to search for water in the new compost. 

Tip: Compost acclimatise your compost up before repotting. 

If your compost is stored in your cold shed or greenhouse or it’s a new bag from Ferndale bring sufficient compost into your home 24 hours before you plan to pot so that it is warmed ready for re-potting. This stops the cold water damaging the roots too.