Hi everyone. I have a PG Hydrangea that I just received form Ebay. It's about 2 feet tall and 2 years old according to the description on Ebay. I'm having a hard time figuring out what size container I should plant it in. I plan on growing it as a standard and maybe plant it in the ground, but I want to keep it in a container for the first couple years so that I can move it around to find the right spot for it. I always have the hardest time picking the right size container now matter what I'm planting. I though about posting in the container forum but since my question is specific to PGs I thought I'd try here first.
This message was edited Jan 20, 2008 2:26 PM
Container size for PG
Typically you should pot up one size at a time--if your plant is getting a little too big for the container it's in, you should find one that's just a little bit larger. If you keep it in a container for long enough, you may need to pot it up a couple of times but it's better to go up one size at a time rather than throwing a small plant into an enormous pot.
Thanks for the quick reply. I just wasn't sure which size to start with. The plant is bare root so it didn't come in a container. I'm really excited to see how it does this summer but I have no idea how fast it grows. Would a 16" pot be too big to start with?
It sounds like it might be a little on the big side, but it's hard to say without seeing the plant and the pot together. What you want to look for is a pot that the roots fit into comfortably, but don't have tons and tons of extra room. So eyeball it--if it looks like when you stick it in the 16" pot there's tons of leftover space then maybe go for one that's 10 or 12 inches instead.
Excellent! Thank you for your help. Now if Spring would just show up I'd be all set :-)
Can I ask a beginner question in here- why is it important not to pick a pot that is much larger?
If you have a huge pot and a tiny plant, it makes it much easier to overwater the plant. You have a huge volume of soil relative to the amount of roots, so the roots can't take up much of the water you add, and as a result the roots end up sitting in wet soil for longer than is good for them. So it's better to get a pot that's just a bit larger than the one the plant came out of, and pot it up gradually.
ercane is right.
Thank you both- I had no idea.
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