What to do when you bought new plants home?

Hey, I’m hoping you read my article about “how to bring home a healthy plant“. If not, go give it a read!

Now that you’re back, let’s talk about what to do when you get a plant home. If you’re like me, you’ll get a little too excited and you’ll want to re-pot the plant and give it a new spot in your home or garden. But we need to consider a few things before we do all of that.

Typically, when you buy some plants it will either be in thin nursery pots or those black plastic grow bags. You need to check if whatever the plant is in, has drainage. By that I mean, there has to be at least one hole at the bottom, for the water to drain through. If not, then you can just poke right through the thin plastic (being very careful of the roots). Otherwise, it might get root rot.

Now, this part is very important. It’s so simple, just leave the plants alone! Let the plants sit in its spot and get used to new surroundings, new light conditions and so on. You would also get stressed if you were moved to a new place, right? Let the plants acclimatize. Try to mimic the nursery atmosphere as much as possible for the first few days

Some plants are scared of movement. For example, the fiddle leaf fig tree hates being moved even a little. So, you just let it be for a while in the new location before you do anything to it.

After a day or 2, check the soil of the plants. If the plants are very dry, you can go ahead and give it some water. If the soil is too wet, lay off the watering.

Let’s say it’s been 7-10 days now and the plants are doing well, you can consider

repotting it (only if necessary). If you can see the roots exploding out of drainage holes or the plant is too big for the pot, you can transfer it into a pot that’s let’s say 2 – 3 inches bigger than the last one. You can slightly loosen the soil around it, free the roots a little and then repot it.

You can use a well-draining soil mixture and put it in a pot with good drainage. A good formula for soil is 2 parts garden soil, 2 parts cocopeat, 1 part perlite. This is a basic soil mixture that works well for indoor plants too.