26 March 2015

a few more

The herbs were not all. I didn't want to stop there. I mixed the rest of my saved vermicompost with tired dry soil and moved some more plants up to new, bigger pots. First to get a boost were the parlor palms. I'd found this tiny seedling in one pot. My youngest insisted I save the baby plant, to see what it grows into.
The biggest parlor palm was very crowded- its roots all growing round in a tight circle. I started loosening them out,
then kept going, worked all the soil out of the root ball because I kept finding these guys!
They were in the last bit of vermicompost saved in the bag, too. I thought surely they would have died out by now- the compost has been stored in that bag for four months, with just the moisture it retained and some holes punched for air. Seems the worms survive- every time I get the compost out to mix into some soil, I find a few baby worms, and many that have full girth but are short in body length, stunted perhaps. I'm also continuing to find worms in the soil of my potted plants- I'd read that a pot is not good habitat for a worm and eventually they will just die. But mine aren't. Maybe I don't let my pots dry out enough between watering. I have to figure out how to get the worms better separated from the compost, before I use it on the plants!

Back to them. The second palm got leaner soil mix, as I was nearly out of vermicompost when I started working on it. It wasn't quite as rootbound, but I spread its rootball (both got a slight trim to the roots too) and moved it up as well.
Here they are together, in their new pots.
The other plant that got refreshed was coleus. Not looking so good lately. I tipped it out, cut its head off, repotted the base
and put the cuttings in water to grow new roots.
I would have done more- my schefflera could use a bigger pot too, but I'm out of fresh soil until I harvest from the bin again...

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