On 17 Nov 2011 16:45:10 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:

Sacha wrote in :

Can't improve on that! I'd put it back into its last pot, in fresh
compost, as Jake suggests, and water sparingly now that winter is
here.
If you do have to water, it's better to do so in the morning, rather
than having pots stand about wet, all through the night. But
definitely, do ensure good drainage. Yours is an example of why
plants get potted on gradually, something often asked on here. Too
much wet compost 'drowns' them.



Thanks to you both. This is educational for me as I'm no gardening expert.
I took your advice and repotted back to the previous pot. I used some
compost mixed 50/50 with some sand and gravel which was surplus from a
concretete-making project.

When I removed the shrups from the large planters, the roots didn't seem at
all waterlogged. They looked like my idea of optimally moist. I couldn't
squeese any water out of the compost using my fingers. Anyway, there was a
period of a couple of weeks when they could have been waterlogged. After I
copiously watered them, it did rain off and on, for about a week. I wonder
if that was the cause.

I did not have any gravel or stones in the bottom of the pot. Perhaps I
should have included them to improve drainage.

The older (smaller) pots have castellations on the bottom, to prevent the
'standing in water' issue that you mentioned. I hope this does the trick.
I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Thanks again,

Al

That you got them back into their previous pots says a lot.
Grisselina's a strong plant but it will help if you can keep the pots
out of freeze-up thru the winter. Unheated greenhouse/conservatory if
you have one; otherwise a few layers of bubble-wrap around the pots.

Check them in about March and if you see roots poking through the
bottom of the pots or, when teasing the rootball out of the pots you
see loads of roots wrapped around the outside, repot them up into the
next size of pot, or ground-plant, using as close to the same mix of
compost as now (though forget the sand - it won't help that much with
a JI-based compost). Tease any circular roots out a bit first.

The secret in potting on is to make the immediate surround of the
rootball as close to the existing as possible (hence why we dig a much
bigger hole when ground planting and use a planting mix to fill it).
Think of it as like you getting out of bed on a cold morning - it's a
lot easier if the heating's on and you're not getting out of that warm
bed into an ice box! The roots are more willing to grow if what
they're growing into is close to what they're leaving.

HTH

Cheers, Jake
==========================================
Proud to be a member of the Taffy Trio
along with Dave and Bill, especially as
the East End, where I'm at, is the drier one