If you have a wide collection of house plants, a cross-country or even cross-city move can be a real challenge. How do you get your delicate plants to your new home in one piece? The jostles of moving can be harmful to delicate plants, and sometimes plants come with large amounts of wet soil and hefty pots, making them even more awkward to move. However, with the right preparation and care, you can move your plants with success.
Early Preparations
A few weeks before you move, you can start the first step of successful plant moving: repotting. If you have plants in fragile pots, peat hanging baskets, or other similarly heavy or awkward containers, take the time to carefully repot them into lightweight plastic containers. This helps to reduce the weight of the plants during the move, and it also protects breakable containers from getting permanently damaged. You can wash and pack ceramic or clay pots with newspaper.
Repotting a few weeks before the move helps your plants adjust to the new pot while still in your regular home environment. You also have the time before the upheaval of the move to doctor them if they need some help after the shock of repotting. If you put off repotting to just a day or two before you move, you won't have the time to help your plants recover if they do not handle the transplant well.
Once you get to your new home, your plants will be well-adjusted to the plastic pots and they will have recovered from any problem repotting might have caused. You can wait until you have unpacked and organized your new house before moving your plants back into the original pots, when you again have the time to help them get through the process.
Just Before The Move
A few days before you load up your plants, take the time to remove dead branches, excess foliage, or dead leaves. The less foliage that is exposed to the moving process, the better it will be for your plant (superfluous leaves, stems and branches can break during the move). It's better to control the breakage by doing it with your pruning shears than allowing the plant to become damaged. Accidental damage can be much harder to repair.
Also, while your plants do need watering, carefully plan the watering schedule so that your plants are mostly dry on moving day. This prevents water from leaking out of the bottoms and ensures lighter pots. You can wrap larger root balls with plastic bags to prevent dirt spillage during the move.
Packing Up
On moving day, place the pots themselves into cardboard boxes for easier moving. Since the box is square and the pots may be round, be sure to have packing peanuts or newspaper handy to fill in the gaps. You can put more that one plant to a box, but you will still need to fill in the gapped areas to prevent tipping or sliding during transit. If your plants are small enough, you can close the box and poke holes in the sides to allow for air flow. Larger plants, like small trees, will stick out, but the box will make carrying easier.
Upon Arrival
Unpack the plants immediately and water them. Place them in a sunny area to help them recover from being boxed. Then, turn your attentions to the rest of your house. Repotting the plants takes time and great care, and allowing the plants to adjust to your new home before repotting helps to reduce the shock of replanting.
For more information on moving difficult items, contact a moving company like Smith Dray Line in your area.
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