By Kev_rowley
east staffordshire, United Kingdom
Phormiums, can they be divided to re-invigorate as the one (which may be crowded as is in a pot ) is looking a little colour drained at the mo
Cheers Kev
- 1 May, 2016
Answers
Yes, they can be divided. Its a bit of a task though, and you'll need a sharp bread knife (yes I know it sounds bonkers, but honestly, its the best thing to use). Turn it out of its pot and look for a space between the fans of growth, cut down in between those if you can, otherwise, just cut the whole root ball in half, through the middle, repot separately and immediately, water thoroughly.
This advice assumes that its already in a large pot and has a sizeable rootball - if its been kept in a small pot, then the rootball probably isn't big enough anyway.
1 May, 2016
yes, it`s a large pot, but it did suffer an ant infestation last year. Gave water and food to settle soil after getting rid of ants. Will de-pot and split to get some fresh soil to roots. (expect to find some voids caused by ants)
cheers Kev
3 May, 2016
You might even find an ant's nest in there then, so wear gloves! They can give a nasty nip, and you need to clear any ant's nest present before repotting - soaking the rootball in a bucket of water for an hour or two, changing the water occasionally, should do the trick. To prevent that occurring again, stand the pot on something, anything, to raise it off the ground - pot feet, bits of flat, broken roof tile, just to give a bit of clearance between the pot and the ground, and dust the place beneath with ant powder occasionally.
3 May, 2016
Have you fed it ?
1 May, 2016