- Greetings from the indoor garden.

My name is Ben, and welcome back to Let's Grow Stuff.

Today, we're taking a break from the outdoors to spend a little time taking care of our indoor plants.

So, let's jump in and get started.

[upbeat music] Well, today we're on a little adventure, and we are in downtown Chicago at Plant Salon, and we are joined by Nika, who is the owner of Plant Salon, to lead us through some indoor plant care basics.

So, Nika, thanks for having us.

- Nika Vaughan: Thank you, and welcome to Plant Salon.

We're in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, and we love tropical plants.

- Absolutely, so tell us what we're gonna work through today.

- So, what we're gonna talk about is just the different soil components that you might want to be thinking of when it's time to re-pot your tropical indoor plant.

- How do we know when it's time to re-pot something?

- A good indication-- oh, and this one's ready.

I love it!

If you can see roots starting to come through where they usually shouldn't be, like out of the drainage holes or the top of the soil, that's a good guide that it's time to re-pot.

- How big should that next size pot be?

So how should we think about sort of that up-potting?

- Up-potting is a great term.

Let's say up-potting.

And it is basically you're gonna go big enough that, one, she should easily fit in, not squeezed [laughs] in.

And one two to finger widths is a wonderful way when you're buying new pots in the shop and you're not sure, just to kind of as a guide be like, "Okay, the smaller pot is "at least one to two finger widths inside.

This should work."

- Often when we re-pot, it's a great opportunity to also propagate our plants or just make more of these plants that we really love.

We're not gonna tackle that today, but Nika did an awesome tutorial at Garden Expo 2021, and you can watch that any time at wigardenexpo.com.

So tell us about the ingredients we're gonna be using today.

How are we gonna make this soil mixture for this?

- Everything here is what you might use to pot up any indoor plant, but we're gonna focus on a potting soil mix for a tropical plant.

And we wanna keep in mind, where's our plant from natively, and what does it grow in, and try to recreate that soil mix for our plant.

- So each of these do different things essentially as we make 'em into our recipe, so what function do they play in a soil mixture?

- So what's great about these is the different combination you use is gonna help to keep your soil mix moist longer or shorter.

So the key thing is a plant like an aroid, they like showers, not baths, so [laughs] they do not wanna be sitting in the same kind of damp, moist soil mix the way a Calathea or a Stromanthe plant might that grows on the forest floor.

These are epiphytic.

They grow up the sides of trees.

So they like to kinda get a rinse and have the water keep moving.

So on this side is our most absorbent, and so we have coco coir, we have peat moss, we have our sphagnum moss that has already been hydrated and soaking in water.

The further off to the side you go, it's gonna be things are less absorbent and retain water less.

- Perfect, so we have sort of a basic soil mixture, something you would probably buy as any basic potting soil here.

So we're gonna start to add these special ingredients, but is there a precise recipe we should be following or thinking about in our mind as we do this?

- Two to three parts of your coco coir or peat moss, one part of your worm castings, and maybe two to three parts of your perlite.

That's gonna be like your basic chicken stock kind of a recipe that you can then doctor how you need to based on the plant you're potting.

- Perfect, so we have our soil mixture ready.

We are ready to dive in and re-pot this little Monstera.

So, walk us through.

Where do we begin?

- First, let's give ourselves some room.

So we're just gonna turn this sideways, have a little more working space.

Gonna put our new planter.

This is a terra cotta pot.

It has drainage on the bottom, which our aroid is going to love.

And then, let's go ahead and just start.

Do you squeeze?

- I do squeeze.

- Yeah.

- I'm a squeezer, yeah.

- So what I'm doing is I'm just squeezing the nursery pot, just to kind of let the roots pull away from the side.

Sometimes they grow, and they kinda cling to the sides.

And then I'm gonna ask do you... do you keep any of your old soil?

- Um, should I?

I don't know.

- Okay, so it's divided.

There's divided people on it that love the bacteria of the old soil as long as it's healthy.

And then, there are people that they want all brand-new.

I'm a fan of a little bit of both, right?

- Little bit of both.

- Little bit of both.

- Best of both worlds.

- So I'm gonna make a mess on my tray over here.

Aroids are a plant-- because they have thicker roots, don't be afraid to kinda massage open that root ball.

A plant that has very, very fine roots, yeah, you might wanna be a little bit more protective of that root ball.

But this one wants to spread out, and Monsteras are very fast growers.

It's gonna wanna dig through all of the great drainage we're gonna make for it.

So I'm just gonna put this to the side for a second.

And, Ben, would you like to start-- - Scooping in the soil, absolutely.

- I am gonna make... You made a nice lovely pile.

I'm gonna make a divot inside the pile to nestle these roots into.

And you wanna be mindful of how high or low in your pot.

So, don't feel like you have to commit.

You don't wanna fill it up all the way right off the bat.

Give yourself some working room.

And what do you think of that?

- Looks good to me.

- Okay.

- Just needs a little more soil.

Beautiful.

And, yes, I am trying to pick the more pretty pieces for the top with the moss and the bark and the coir showing through.

There we go.

- Because there's so much drainage in this mix, there's lots of air voids, so I'm just gonna take my fingers and gently kinda compact.

- And you're doing this to help the plant stay in place or to remove the air pockets or both?

- Both.

- Both, okay.

- Maybe a little bit more.

- Ben: You got it.

- Once we water the new potting mix, everything's gonna compact naturally again anyway, so it's okay for it to be a little on the full side.

I'm gonna try to grab a pretty scoop also.

[Ben laughs] - So, it looks like we're about done with our re-potting adventure.

Anything else we should do to get our new plant set up for success here?

- Just be mindful of you made this amazing custom potting mix.

How often do you need to water it?

Because you doctored a pre-existing potting mix, maybe, you're probably gonna need to water it either a little less or a little bit more than the original mix.

- So keep an eye on it, especially in the first few weeks, more than you might normally.

- Exactly.

- Perfect.

So I think this guy's ready for a drink.

Is that about our last step?

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Excellent.

- Let's see right here.

And we are going to pour enough water where water comes out the base of the pot.

That way, we know the entire root ball has been saturated.

Oh.

- Ben: And it's coming to the surface a little, but that's natural as it all settles in, right?

- Nika: Exactly, exactly.

Oh, and there we go.

- Perfect, well, Nika, thank you so much for taking the time to share your time and expertise in Plant Salon with us today.

We appreciate it.

- Thanks so much for coming by.

- I, for one, have a little bit more confidence when it comes to taking care of my own indoor plants, and I hope you do too.

Now, don't forget there is so much more to learn online at pbswisconsin.org/ letsgrowstuff.

There you'll find more videos, tips, tricks, and a blog to help you grow a better garden.

So, until next time, happy gardening.

- Funding for Let's Grow Stuff is provided by American Transmission Company, Ganshert Nursery & Landscapes, Willy Street Co-op, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.