djmb74
10-20-2009, 07:26 AM
Moving a banana plant from a good sized pot to an even larger pot can be a challenge if you don't want to disturb the roots. A 15-25 gallon pot is a good amount of dirt and trying to wrangle the plant out is tough...
What I started doing is taking large strips of nursery ground cover and laying them inside the pot with a few inches hanging out on the sides before putting soil in the pot. With larger pots you can use 2 strips in an X pattern. That way when its time to take the plant out to move it up to the bigger pot you just grab the dog ears sticking out of the pot to help slide the plant out and keep all the roots together without disturbing them. I even did it with my 1 and 5 gallon pots...also keeps you from having to grab a hold of the stem to pull plants out.
If your not using ground cover and don't have extra lying around just find one of your local nursery's they always have piles of old ground cover somewhere on the back of their property!
What I started doing is taking large strips of nursery ground cover and laying them inside the pot with a few inches hanging out on the sides before putting soil in the pot. With larger pots you can use 2 strips in an X pattern. That way when its time to take the plant out to move it up to the bigger pot you just grab the dog ears sticking out of the pot to help slide the plant out and keep all the roots together without disturbing them. I even did it with my 1 and 5 gallon pots...also keeps you from having to grab a hold of the stem to pull plants out.
If your not using ground cover and don't have extra lying around just find one of your local nursery's they always have piles of old ground cover somewhere on the back of their property!