Moving/planting confusion
Hello all,
I confess to being a garden numpty....oh meant to say newbie, (possibly!), but I've always wondered (for about 3 years), why its OK to plant pot grown plants at any stage of their growth, but seems a no-no to move plants already in the ground. For eg those which may have turned out to be the "wrong" colour or growing larger than I expected. Please bear in mind I'm a numpty...um newbie. I've read about shock to root system/establishing root system at particular times of season/growth, but can't understand why there should be a difference between me planting something I've just bought (which seems acceptable pretty much any time), and moving a young/ish plant with established root system. At this point please font ask what I'm thinking of moving as I can't remember the name without getting my books out! I know, duh!
Posts
Because moving a plant is more traumatic .
Root damage, interruption and a change of incidence of light.
A potted plant only needs watering weekly, the soil is warm and should root fast.
IMHO if you take a good enough rootball, and the ground is moist before and after moving, and you don't do it on a baking hot day, and you keep things well watered after moving,you can move pretty much anything.
I'm still moving big clumps of Hostas in full leaf.
I'd say the main difference is that when you take a plant out of a pot the full root system comes out with it - all nice and intact with no damage. Whereas when you dig up an established plant then you're likely to do some damage to the root system as it's not been confined to one place and will likely be heading off in different directions at different depths.
That said, as long as you get as much of the rootball out in one piece and give it a good watering in it'll likely be OK. It may go a little droopy or sulky and refuse to flower for the season but in the long run most plants are fine.