A potting Mat!
Being a big houseplant lover, I always imagine re potting plants is like a day at the beach, with sand sticking everywhere. Picture having soil in your ears or underwear. The worst is finding soil in bed or stuck on your knees. Regardless of what day of the week it is we often find soil or semi hydro turn up in the most frustrating places. What if I could tell you theres other ways we can reduce the mess either clean up there and then or lump it! There is another way! I often find when I repot late at night or at a weird time I rush my repot and don’t really feel like cleaning up my mess. I suffer go to bed and wake up with Sphagnum moss stuck to my cheek.
Mental pictures Aside in this blog I will be taking you through the phrase a ‘Potting Mat’ I will inform you of a few different methods that I have seen looking at the pros and cons to each one and helping you to discover some of the best methods to a quick and easy repot. I will end this blog and talk about what is the product a potting mat what this means for the regular house plant lover =.
Where or what is a repotting surface on the table or the floor and even heard of people repotting on there bed, to which I am guilty. Soil and substrates can get anywhere as I’ve talked about above and your repotting surface is the place in which you choose to repot your plants. However, after the re potting session your often left with a mess on the floor to clean up and sometimes this can be on the carpet meaning it gets crushed into the floor and children and pets, walking into the room dragging mess across the floor and sometimes as you are repotting the substrate might bounce and get on to a little ones hands as they are crawling around.
What Is A Potting Mat:
This is where a potting mat comes in, a potting mat can be anything that helps you contain the soil and substrate mess during the process of repotting, making moss poles boxing up propgations or opening new plants. It enables you to collect the mess in one space, preventing it from spreading. It helps protect your table or floor from being ruined and discoloured every time you choose to repot your plants. Additionally, you might find it allows you to water your plants straight after repotting.
Often, you may have a repotting table if you’re lucky enough to own one, which can help, but you will eventually need to clean up. Wet soil has the potential to slowly ruin your carpets, nice dining room table, and floor color. If you rent or have non-plant-loving housemates, they probably won't be happy with plants in the shower or soil in their sock drawer. A potting mat helps prevent the worst of these things and makes for a simpler clean-up.
However, you don’t need to go out of your way to buy a potting mat if you can’t afford it. There are plenty of other cheaper or free ways to create a potting mat yourself.
end of part 1
What can I Reuse or re purpose as a potting mat?
You can save a lot of money by repotting on the floor of your own space and no one minds. Ensure you have tools like a vacuum and broom to clean up. Use a soil calculator to determine how much soil you need. Avoid carpet when watering plants. A hard floor or the patio outside is a convenient spot as it can be easily cleaned afterward.
Downsides of using the floor for repotting:
Mess is hard to control when repotting in bulk.
Cleaning cannot be delayed.
Risk of upsetting housemates or staining the floor.
Cleaning up may be tough and it is not very comfortable for repotting.
Soil may get tracked around by people or animals entering the room.
Accidents happen...
2. Using the table or a counter surface is great Re potting mat, as you can push the mess straight into the bin afterwards, that is if you have access to your bin that way. Having counter top or table to repot some people are lucky enough to own a repotting table at least you can leave it there and sit in comfort to repot. But similar to the idea above it its harder to contain that mess. I was discussing this idea with my friends at mythos3design and They mention that after the many times repoting on there dinning room table without protecting the surface with anything. Mentioning that it can not be good from the surface of that table. A big con to this is not realising that you potentially made a puddle of soil on the floor.
Mythos Design
Foam Board
3. One of the ideas presented to me was the idea of using a newspaper as a potting mat. Truth be told, I could see this being a really good idea for a potting mat. @Jess.aplant shared this in a recent reel, as you can see, using a piece of newspaper for such a small plant. If you have a newspaper to hand, it's the perfect quick potting mat.
Pros:
Often readily available.
You can use a piece of scrap paper or cardboard.
Easy to fold up and throw away.
It doesn’t have to be an actual newspaper.
Cons:
Only useful for smaller plants.
If you want to water after repotting, you would still need a tray.
Limited use, only beneficial for smaller plants.
You could use a few pages, but you would still need to be very meticulous about repotting.
Influencer and Helpers for this blog are as follows
images by: plantas.with.noraiza jess.aplant rrrosiki mythos3design houseplant_addiction_
comments and ideas inspired by: an_english_jungle
Thanks for your help ! please comment below if you have some more examples of preventing that re potting mess
Containing the Mess
Mess Happens
Mess will happen, whether it's physical or in life. Take a deep breath to begin again. There's no perfect way; just remember it's fine look after number one!
POTING Mat
A Potting mat could be anything you want to use to contain the mess! Lets discover some tried and tested methods! When dealing with Re potting House Plants. Including introducing other plant lovers peoples methods. Lets have a look of different items serious and funny ways you can use to repot on and please comment below if you have any ideas and tricks that have worked for you in the past. I’m gonna list them here some options and if you read further down the blog I will write some pros and cons to what benefits and hinders this particular mat.
The floor indoors
Take the repotting outside
A Newspaper, cardboard box or foam.
Repot over substrate box or bag.
Big Towel
lid of a plastic storage box
shallow garden tray
Big piece of Tarp
kitchen sink
A Potting Mat
4. Another way of creating a potting mat is to repot over the container or bag that the substrate comes in sometimes I do this where I put a pot into the substrate bag and fill the the up with substrate. This is great fast method but its often when you only need to repot the one plant and its not a great way to if your changing a substrate like moving to semi hydro and its still so easier to just still make a mess. So it has similar downsides to using the floor or a table top surface.
I’m going to put five, six, seven, and eight together in this pros and cons list. Repot on a plastic container or lid, a blanket, an old towel, a shallow garden tray, or a big piece of tarp. I think I’ve done all of these in the early days when I started collecting indoor plants. Originally, I used to take them outside; however, that meant the likelihood of the weather being okay or the threat of pests being higher. I started to realize that it was better to repot house plants indoors rather than outdoors. I used a massive old metal whiteboard at one point. Each of these similar methods is great because they are waterproof, easy to get hold of, and the substrates are more contained, resulting in less mess. Some of them if flat enough can be put away easily. Waterproof and easily cleaned
However,
They can be bulky or to small.
The substrate gets stuck on them easily like in the fibres of the old towel, the corners of the box
Bigger containers you can make more mess. Small ones are easier to clean but don’t container the mess as well.
Storage is hard with large containers.
Often this is can provide you with better cleaning if you use the same thing everytime.
Lastly You can using a potting mat its self:
Pros to using a repotting mat:
There are often a variety of options available at different price ranges.
They should be quite compact and waterproof.
Easy to clean, or it is possible to leave the mess overnight if needed.
Jungle Floor Creative Potting Mats:
You can water your plants on the repotting mats.
They are also compact. I made the potting mats I sell compact, either rolled or folded flat.
They are made by a small business and are bespoke, with great 99% waterproofing.
I have a range of designs that are considered quite larger than I’ve seen.
Super easy to clean and can be hung up to dry.
Sides make it easy to collect substrate off the Potting mat.
Cons to having a potting mat:
They cost more money than some of the other methods mentioned here.
They can take up extra space compared to other methods.
Some might not be as robust as others.
guess thats just it and if you would like to purchase a potting mat from me. Send me a comment and i’ll even give you a discount for reading my latest blog! go to the potting mat shop to find out more info. For notification for each blog and deals, sales and giveaways sign up to my news letter.
