Spider Mite bath bare root.

[davidwood]

I have to re-pot 3 of my cv's from a soil to a soil less mix,would it be ok to give them a bath before i re-pot bare root or should i pot them up in the new mix and then bathe them?

[Charlie]

Let's see. I assume you want to bathe them because they have or might have spider mites. If that is correct, then I would give them a bath asap and before doing any repotting. When you bare-root a hibiscus you will inevitably lose some of the fine roots that absorb water easily. This will put a temporary stress on the plant while the new roots grow back. You would not want the plant to be fighting spider mite stress at the same time as repotting stress so definitely deal with the mites before doing the repotting. After repotting place the plant in the shade for a few days. It might even have wilty leaves. This would be normal but they should crisp up within a week or so. To help you can mist or lightly spray the leaves as many times a day as you can manage. The hibiscus will absorb water through the leaves and this is a big help while the new roots are growing in. I've done this a lot and rarely lost any plants doing it so don't be afraid to do it if you need to repot.

All the above applies mainly to cleaning the soil off the roots or to reducing the size of the root ball when repotting and not to standard repotting in which the rootball is not disturbed except for scratching or loosening the roots on the surface of the rootball so they will grow into the new soil.

Please let us know how it goes.

Charlie

[jpiper82]

Charlie, you bring up an interesting point about scratching the root ball when transplanting to a larger pot. Could you elaborate more or post a picture of what a 6" pot, rootball should look like when you scratch or loosen the rootball before we put it in the new pot?  I have never done that, just eased them out of the 6" pot and put them in the larger pot. Thanks,
John