How do I pot a year old bare root clematis?

18 years ago

Hi everyone. I am a noob! I just signed up for an account a few minutes ago. I've been reading this forum for months trying to get the feel of it.I know I can learn a lot from here so I decided to join and bother you guys with my newbie questions :-) I just started gardening. Everything I "learned" I got it from online researching...but then I have been caught up by too many details. I am overwhelmed on the "shoulds" and "should nots". I would really need some detailed "How to grow" tips on clematis although this seems ambitious for a beginner gardener.A friend of mine received her clematis bare roots yesterday and she gave me two.Since I didn't have time to plant them,I placed them in the fridge crisper.I am thinking of planting them tomorrow.Since they are a year old bare root,I have read that they have to be potted in a 1 gallon pot at least till Sept or Oct before moving them to their permanent location.I want to do this right so here are the questions:Can I use a potting mix the kind you get in bags from HomeDepot or Lowes that has a 9 month continuous feed mixed into it?If I use that, do I still have to fertilize with 5-10-10 and 10-10-10 (alternate) for 6 to 8 weeks?Do I have to add bone meal and other fancy amendments in the potting mix? Can I just stake a cane(my hubby's old drumsticks) in the pot for support or do I have to buy a small trellis? I don't really want to since this is only a temporary potting. Help! Any detailed tips please!!!

P.S. Also I have no clue what clematis I have, my friend got one of those grab bag unnamed deals. The roots look pretty healthy though.

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Comment (1)

nckvilledudes
18 years ago
I would pot them up as soon as possible. The size of pot I used would really depend on how large the bareroots are. I typically use the potting mix with fertilizer in it but I just make sure that it doesn't have a ton of nitrogen (first number in the list of three on the bag) so that the plant won't bonkers putting out green growth. If I use potting mix with continuous release fertilizer I typically don't add anything else, especially the first few months or so since it is already in the mix. Too much fertilizer is not good for clematis--they just need a constant supply. If later in the season, they seem to flatten out growthwise I sometimes will give them a monthly drink of fish emulsion in water. I typically don't add any other nutrients like bonemeal either. The plant is going to let you know if it needs something so until it does, my opinion is to leave it alone. As to what you use for support in the pot, that is up to you. The plant may outgrow the drumsticks by season's end but you can always put something else in the pot later on. I would encourage you to periodically pinch out the growing tips as the plant grows to encourage the development of axiallary buds so that you will get two stems where you once had one. This will give you a bushier plant with more vines versus one with one long spindly vine. Also plant the crown several inches (3 or so) under the soil level to bury dormant nodes that will eventually develop into new stems.
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