Ken, as you know, I know very little and rely on you and the others for every bit of knowledge I have, so take this for what it is worth. ;) I have had several in the same pot media for three years now. This is a great question. I loved the idea of potting them up once I saw that others did it. Now, I am thinking that maybe I will take these out in the fall and put them in the ground. Then, I will put new mix and hosta into the pot come next spring. Can't wait to hear what everyone else says.

I went to a container gardening workshop where the woman said we should discard the medium each year since the nutrients would be depleted (and no she didn't work for the nursery, so it wasn't just to sell stuff to us). I am not ready to do that, but I am willing to consider a three-year contract!

Oh, you might like one of her ideas-add small conifers to pots! I now have three pots that have a conifer in them. She said to plant in the yard come fall, but it looks really neat for now!

Cynthia

What do you mean about the media holding out? I use mostly mini-bark with a little organic potting soil, the hostas rely on my occasional fertilizing with diluted liquid fert. for nourishment...they don't get much from my media.

My hostas stay in a given container until they outgrow it...probably about 3 years, some after 2..it depends on how vigorous the plant grows. I slide them out when they look crowded to see if indeed those roots fill the pot or if they just run down the sides, with few in the center.

When I up pot, I just plop the crowded hosta into a container that with give it about an inch of space all around. I don't mess with the roots if they look white, firm and healthy.

If I see any rotted ones, I do remove the old media with a jet setting on a hose to blast all the bad stuff away. Then they get dunked in a 10% bleach solution and repotted into a suitable size pot...mostly same size or down, something that will "comfortably" hold the roots.

I water the pots every 3 or 4 days, depending on the weather. YMMV

-Babka

geez babs... you got me with YMMV .... lol ... had to look it up ...

ken

I'm a pothead too. Not quite as accomplished as Babka, and certainly not as restrained. I'm at the beginning of the 3d season growing, if you count from 2012 as ONE.

I've gone through a bout with poorly draining pots, which I now have totally replaced, using black nursery style pots from Lowes. In Mobile, they "recycle" their old pots, do not let us have them.
So I spent a chunk of new pots, and new media for all of those plus the ones which had leaped out of their pots.

My mix begins with MiracleGro in the 64 qt bags. I add to that half or more a bag of the mini pine bark chips. I seek good drainage above all. To that I add some dried crab shells, which feeds good nematodes which feed on the bad nematodes. I also add about half a small bag of Vermiculite, and about 2 gallons of peat. I mix it all up by hand, with some water to hold it together.

In my pots, which have SIDE drainage holes, I put a layer of mini pine bark nuggets at the bottom. I know, it is not necessary, but I do it anyway, because we have a lot of rain and I try to keep the drain holes clear with these small pieces of bark across the bottom.

When I took a hosta from the poorly draining container, I collected all the old crumbling mix into a garbage can and then I washed the roots fairly clean. I also untangled as many as I could given my time for the project. Like Babka said, I had some with bad roots, and those I dosed in 10% bleach solution before repotting. I'm using the old media as fill for holes in the yard caused by rotting tree roots. It helps contour the area beneath my mulch.

Since I began growing hosta in 2012, I am on my 3d year with most hosta. A few early purchases, before the hosta bug bit me, date from 2011 and about 6 date from 2010. I have potted and repotted since the break of dormancy, some due to squirrel digging out the pot, or the media sank down so low it had to be redone. Now I am done with the "emergency" pot/repot work, and it is based on who is getting too big in the original pot, or who is deteriorating for whatever reason that must be fixed, or else I decide not to replace it, and shuffle it to the "look at on occasion" spot. One that is headed to that spot is Ann Kulpa, by the way.

My concern at this time is the number of hosta ready to LEAP on me. What will I do for pots? I need a source of much larger nursery style pots. Something like tree tubs, but not needed really deep. I bought a couple of trees just to get the TUBS they came in.

I gave away my Ann Kulpa. It never looked good past the first month each spring and not always then. It's not so outstanding then to make up for how bad it looks the rest of the year, either.

I can't remember who it was. It was either Pieter or Steve who said that the media should be changed out every three years. I've not done that regularly. My previous habit was to pop the plant out the pot, throw some media in the bottom of the new, bigger pot, plop in the whole root system and fill in the edges. That's not a problem until you start growing perennials in pots. Here is what happens over the span of years when you continue that habit.

bk

When I've had to cut large ones in half, Bkay, mine don't look like that. I see different kinds of potting media in your photo. Mine always start out bare root and the bark is more evenly distributed throughout. By the time I up-pot, the root mass is so entangled I would never be able to remove the old media without losing half or more of the root system.

-Babka

Of course, Babka. You use bark only. It wouldn't happen in your circumstances. I totally re-potted Blue Angel last year and it wasn't like that, either. I got Blue Angel in 2009.

The one in the photo was an old NOID hosta that I have had since the sometime in the 90's. Years of just putting it in a bigger pot with new media around the edges results in that over a long period of time. Other than the brief period when I was making my own potting soil, I've used Miracle Grow potting soil.

All I can say is that hosta are tough.

bk

bk.. tell me what you pic shows... i cant 'see' ....

i think i know... but use me some words ... did it get mucky... did it get swampy ... i note roots dont go evenly thru it all ...

to bad you werent a camera ace back then... you would have taken a pic with better contrast ...

ken

When I take a plant out of a pot and have the roots solid across the bottom and no hope of untangling them, I take my razor knife and cut the bottom--the very lowest part of it, not up the sides--totally off, and by going around the perimeter, that root mass drops off like a hotpad for the table, made by a kid in kindergarten.

Then I can reach inside from the bottom and remove any available potting mix, and splay out the sides of the root system. I poke more fresh mix into the hollow spot, plop it down on the pile of fresh mix (with a goodly portion of pine bark mini nuggets in it) and add my mix around the margins, even add a bit on top if I removed any top stuff in the process.
I am always conscious of planting too deep, but I do not like to see, after I've watered it in, the bare roots showing near the crown, so I rake a little to cover those exposed roots.

I'm waiting for my next 50 pound bag of crushed crab shells to arrive, but not rushed by potting so much this week.

Thanks for sharing the results of that method of refreshing a pot of hosta over time, BKay. While you've done hostas for a lot longer than I have, I believe some of my early potting jobs were shocking to my more experienced eye. I swear they looked like either clay, or common garden soil, and no bark. The ones with no bark amendments, it was surprising that they still lived. Poor babies, it was a rough life.Hope I don't kill them with kindness now.

I grow in pots. I always have. I redress the tops of my pots every year. I see what bk is talking about. Soil or media has to be fluffed so it will accept water easier and drain better. If not it gets hard and turns into a brick. Not fun to grow in and plants will get smaller. I call it hard pack and it is what happens when soil is not freshened. I change my soil every 3 to 4 years as the pine bark breaks down. It is usually time to repot anyway. I do not over pot. The idea that it will grow into a pot does not work. 1 inch around all sides is a good rule. Do loosen the roots to encourage the plant not to keep growing in a ball. I have had that happen. I order my pots from greenhouse supply stores so I have all sizes. My mix is one standard size potting soil 2/3 of large bag pine fines and perlite to taste. I use a composter as I need lots of mix. Recycled soil hits the yard. Paula Every day is a great day in the garden.

Good thread, I have learned a couple of things. I have Jade Cascade in a 10 gallon nursery pot with regular soil. This was my first attempt at growing hosta and I put it in the pot in the ground to protect its roots from the surrounding cedar trees.
That was in 2008. I lost a lot of the hosta that year and I eventually learned why That Jade Cascade is still in the same pot with the same soil and it was moved to a different house. I figured if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You can see it on the Hosta Library.

I've never been a camera ace. I have a new camera and am still using the old one as I have to learn how the new one works.

The pot looked great in 2012. It had 100+ eyes then. It was in about a 8 gallon pot.

I got the lovely Cleo in 2012. She knocked it over several times while chasing squirrels. When it came up in 2013, it was a shadow of itself. I had planned to divide it and put it in a smaller pot that was easier to handle, so I went forward with the plan.

I cut the root ball in half and found a clump of clay, for lack of a better word, right under the crown. It is obvious that the potting soil had deteriorated in that area.

I just washed everything off and potted it up in two pots. It recovered.

My guess is that knocking the pot over broke off a lot of the roots between the "clay" section and the better potting soil area. I'm not sure what would have happened if she had not knocked the pots over. It may have done just fine with that mud/clay center. But, then, maybe not. I have another really old one that probably has that same problem. It's not doing as well as it should, so probably needs a whole re-pot.

Many of the plants that were between Cleo and the squirrels and the tree came back smaller in 2013. I moved everything back about 6 ft. from the tree and they fare much better.

I cut the root ball in half and found a clump of clay, for lack of a better word, right under the crown. It is obvious that the potting soil had deteriorated in that area.

==>>> i am a little dull in affect and mood today ....

if i understand .. this happened from 2008 to 2012 ... so in about 4 years... with a huge plant ... correct ...

and probably prior to you more fully understanding media ... probably before you started using chunks of stuff to lighten or aerate the media .. yes???

====>>>>>> this is exactly what i asked about... there was a failure of the media... its prime function being the movement of water and AIR ... and when the media failed... the hosta failed ...

the only thing that confuses me ... is that she threw it on the deck to work on it.. rather than on the driveway ... lol ...

ken

No, Ken that pot started sometime in the 90's when I bought a couple of boxes of hosta from Sam's. They didn't do well in the ground, so I moved them to a pot "until I could find another place for them". I ended up leaving them there, as they did very well.

I just kept putting it in a larger pot with new soil around the outside and in the bottom. So that's probably a 15 to 20 year old clump of deteriorated potting soil in the center.

bk