POTTING AND REPOTTING OR SHIFTING. 



331 



material which will retain moisture, fig. 259. The exhaustion of the 

 soil is remedied by re-potting-, or in some cases by the application of 

 manure ; either solid on the surface of the soil, 

 in the pots, or in a liquid state poured on the soil, 

 or contained in a saucer in which the pot is placed. 

 Notwithstanding all these resources, plants in 

 pots, excepting those naturally of small size, never 

 grow so luxuriantly as those in the free soil, and 

 therefore this mode of growing plants is adopted for 

 convenience, or to make up for defects in climate, 

 or want of space in plant-tructures, and not in 

 general to bring plants to a higher degree of per- 



Fig. 259- One pot placed within fgc^^Qjj 

 another, for the purpose of ' t»i . .,i 



retaining the soil in the inner 741. Potting. — Plants are either sown m pots, 

 pot in a moist state. planted in them when newly originated from seeds, 



cuttings, or other modes of propagation ; or removed to them from the free soil 

 when of considerable size. When a rooted plant placed in a pot has begun to 

 grow, its fibres extending in every direction, soon reach the sides of the pot, 

 where, being checked, they are compelled to follow its sides, till, after a short 

 time, they form a net- work between the pot and the earth which it contains ; 

 so firmly enveloping the latter, that w^hen turned out, it remains entire as one 

 solid body, or, as it is technically called, ball. As the roots in young plants 

 are commonly few, and proceed in direct lines from the stem of the plant to 

 the sides of the pot, it happens when the ball is large, and the plant of rapid 

 growth, that the interior of the ball contains few roots, and, consequently, 

 that the soil there is, in a great measure, lost to the plants. To prevent this 

 from being the case, plants when first potted are planted in pots of the smallest 

 size, by which the full benefit of the whole of the soil in the first pot is certain 

 of being obtained ; while there is no danger of this being the case when the 

 plant is shifted into larger pots, because each time that this is done there is 

 only a thin stratum of soil introduced between the ball and the pot. An- 

 other reason why plants are first potted in the smallest- sized pots in which 

 they can be planted, is, that the drainage is more perfect, and that the soil 

 is more readily penetrated by heat, whether of the atmosphere, or of the 

 material in which it may be plunged. When a large mass of rich, soft, 

 finely-sifted soil is brought together and compressed, as it always is in a 

 pot, it parts with w^ater so slowly as to become sodden for want of air ; and 

 in that case it rots the spongioles of the fibres, and even the fibres them- 

 selves. A small portion of soil, on the other hand, retains less moisture, is 

 readily pierced by the roots, and kept comparatively open by them ; and 

 hence the fibres and their spongioles are uninjured. If, instead of rich, soft, 

 soil, readily compressed, a comparatively poor, sandy soil were used, the 

 smallest plants might be planted in the largest pots, without any danger 

 of rotting the roots ; though with great want of economy in regard to soil, 

 space, and future management. By beginning with small-sized pots, 

 and shifting into others, gradually increasing in size, the full benefit of all 

 the soil put in the pot will have been obtained, and the plant stimulated by 

 every fresh addition to its roots, to increase its leaves and shoots. 



742. The same soil which is suitable for the open ga7'den is not always 

 suitable for using in pots. — Every gardener must have observed that soil 

 that will remain sufficiently open for the roots of plants in the quarters of 



