Another morning that feels like Spring is in the air.  It's highly unlikely we won't have more cold weather and snow before Spring actually arrives, but these nice, warm days are pressuring me to get all my Winter projects done so I'm ready to hit Spring yard work running.

One of the things I do toward the end of Winter, is inspect my house plants to see if they need re-potting or any other TLC.  I inspect the pots for signs of fertilizer salt build-up.  That's that white, powdery or crystal-like "stuff" that leaches through porous pots, like clay, or builds up along the edges of non-porous pots.  It is virtually impossible to raise healthy, strong potted plants without the use of fertilizer, but the down-side is that fertilizers are basically soluble salts and they build up in soil over time.  In addition, if we water with tap or even filtered water, there are salts in the water.  Your potting medium may have salts already in it, as well.  Too much salt to plants is just like too much salt to humans - detrimental.

There are several ways to decrease the salt build-up in your soil.  For minor problems when the plant otherwise does not need to be re-potted, you can "leach" the salt from the soil.  This involves watering the pot heavily until the water runs freely from the drainage holes of the planter.  Do not leave the drainage tray on the planter during this process - you want that water to run down the drain.  Allow the water to completely stop dripping - usually about 20 to 30 minutes and then repeat the process.  For heavier build-up, repeat the process a third time.  Clean all visible salt deposits from the sides of the pot and the drip trays. 

You can also immerse the entire pot in clean water, let stand until the soil is well saturated, then lift the pot and allow to drain freely.  Repeat this process several times.  This is a bit messier than simply running water through the soil, as the soil may float off the top of the plants.  If the soil in your planters is very compacted, though, this is a more effective means of flushing the salts.

For bad salt build-up, the plant may require re-potting with fresh soil.  Remove the plant from the pot, brush off as much of the soil as you can without damaging the roots, and re-plant in fresh, clean soil in a fresh, clean pot. 

Tomorrow we'll talk about how to salvage those salt-soaked planters.