How to Use Smart Pot Transplanters
When working with transplants have you ever ended up with more root ball in your hands than on the plant? Then you’ll appreciate the special design of Smart Pot Transplanters.
These reusable, soft-sided planters have a flap on one side that makes it easy to open and remove plants for transplanting. No more harming plants when trying to get them out of their plastic containers or cutting through hard plastic to get plants out of their pots.
Another improvement over plastic pots, these cloth Transplanters encourage strong root systems for healthier plants because they’re made with the same high-quality materials as other Smart Pot products.
Transplanters are Transporters
The Transplanters could actually be called “transporters” because they’re made for moving plants from place to place. Sometimes they’re used to transport plants from one part of the yard to another. At other times, from one garden to another.
One gardener used her Transplanter pots to save plants from a relative’s yard before he sold his house. Together they dug up several favorite perennial plants and potted them in Transplanters to transport and replant in her garden several hundred miles away.
She kept the plants watered until it was time to transplant them into her garden. The side openings made it easy to fold back the Transplanter and remove plants with their hardy rootballs. The roots of each plant had grown into a such a strong root system, they held together during planting, reducing transplant shock.
Other Transplanter Ideas
Sharing plants is just one way to use Smart Pot Transplanters. Here are some other ideas for planting and transplanting:
- Plant flower or vegetable seeds to start the season.
- Take cuttings from other plants to grow for transplanting.
- Move self-seeded or volunteer plants to other spots in the landscape.
- Experiment with growing kitchen scraps like garlic cloves, celery and green onions.
- Dig annuals in fall, like geraniums and begonias, to overwinter indoors.
- Thin overgrown perennials to transplant or to pass along in spring.
Divide Perennials for Transplanting
When dividing perennial plants, like yarrow, daylily and coreopsis, water them the day before and prepare the new planting spot in advance, if replanting. Dig the planting hole as deep as the plant’s root ball; avoid planting deeper or shallower.
- Gather materials and tools like Smart Pot Transplanters, potting soil, a garden trowel or shovel and gloves.
- Dig up as much of the plant and its root ball as possible by digging all the way around the plant, several inches away from the plant.
- Divide the plant into two by carefully separating roots with the trowel or shovel.
- Place each plant with its roots in a Transplanter, add more potting soil as needed to fill the pot and gently firm it around the roots.
- Water to keep soil moist, but not soggy.
Replant as soon as possible or share plants with gardening friends to keep the growing going.
