Sunday, April 18, 2010

"The Nursery" or "What to do with immature plantlets"

Often when you're potting up plantlets from leaf cuttings you'll have plantlets that aren't quite large enough to warrant their own pot but don't deserve to be sent to the compost pile either.  

What I do with these immature plantlets is pot them up into a communal "nursery".  I use a 3" pot and fill it with my regular potting mix and top dress it with vermiculite (the vermiculite prevents the small plantlets from settling/sinking into the potting mix).  As you can see, I can easily fit seven immature plantlets in the nursery.  These "babies" are generally ready to be potted up into their own pots in 6 to 8 weeks or you can leave them in the nursery longer if you're not ready to deal with them. 

If you're short on space, this is also a great space saver.

The first picture was taken April 18, 2010; the second picture was taken May 19, 2010.  You can see how quickly they grow. The plantlets are large enough now to safely transplant into their own pots or can be left in the nursery for another month.

No comments:

Post a Comment