Why loosen the soil when growing potted flowers? It's like loosening your belt after eating too much

Some people have a habit of loosening their belt when they've eaten too much, just to feel more comfortable, and growing flowers is the same. If the soil used for growing flowers is unsuitable, it easily becomes compacted, which is bad for watering and fertilizing, so when it's not yet time to repot, you have to loosen the soil!

Especially when potting up into a large pot, we often use some old soil, mixing in some garden soil, and soil like this, after being used for a long time, easily becomes slightly compacted, so that even a small stick can't easily be pushed in. In an environment like this, the plant roots don't breathe well and don't absorb nutrients well either, so loosening the soil is imperative.

Loosening the soil also takes skill; if you do it badly, you can even harm the plant, so come and learn. First, use a small bamboo stick to pry the soil loose along the inner edge of the flower pot, just prying up a thin top layer, and don't stab the roots.

After the upper part is loosened, it's time for the inner part. Cup the outer wall of the pot with both hands and gently pat the outer wall a few times until the surface soil in the pot becomes loose and even, and in this way the soil beside the inner wall of the pot will loosen too.

With the two methods above, the potting soil is basically loosened quite a lot, but the situation at the bottom hasn't improved. At this point, use a hard wooden stick or wooden rod, insert it along the inner wall of the pot down to the bottom of the pot, and then carefully loosen the soil; you can also use a professional soil-loosening tool, but in every case be careful to avoid harming the plant roots.

After loosening the soil, you may find that to water thoroughly, the amount of water needed will be more than before, and this is the effect of loosening the soil. Before, the soil was compacted and water couldn't seep in, running straight down the pot rim or through some gaps to the bottom of the pot, so it simply wasn't watered through at all.

So, in everyday care, if you want to avoid this troublesome matter, there are two approaches. First, use a professional nutrient soil; most of them are lightweight and contain granules, so compaction rarely occurs.

Second, after mixing garden soil or old soil for potting up, when watering in everyday care, be careful not to give half-measure water, and then water with an organic nutrient solution that activates the soil and loosens it. The organic matter factors in it can improve the soil environment, and compaction will naturally be reduced.

When caring for your plants, fellow flower growers, try not to use garden soil directly, and also pay attention to the details of everyday watering; these are all causes of soil compaction. Growing flowers requires loosening the soil, and when it's time to repot, repot, so that the plants can grow well.