Shifting your households to a new place could be a very tensed job for you to perform. But you should shift all your belongings as well as your pets, without causing any trouble or injury to them. In a similar way, moving your plants to your new place would be a challenging process. It’s essential to think about what to do with your house plants when you perform a shift because you can move your plants with the least possible shock.
You should know about the extra delicacy of shrubs, saplings, and flowers that makes your shifting quite challenging. Relocating house plants depend on the climatic conditions, best season, shifting time, fragility and the sentimental value of the place where you are moving. There are more essential tips and ideas provided below to know about shifting your plants during your home relocation.
Ways to carry your house plants
Shifting your plants in a van for a long-distance includes difficulties like heat, dryness or cold. Plants transported through van are moved completely at your risk. Airline companies take plants as air freight, but they won’t deliver any service other than transportation. Plants might be affected by lack of water, restricted space within the container and from temperature extremes.
It is your job to make sure that the plants are correctly packed, labelled, picked up and delivered on time. While shifting by your own vehicle, you might be able to water the plants, minimize their moving time by loading as late as possible and finally unloading them as soon as you arrive.
How to avoid shock while relocating plants
Most plants are subjected to shock when transferred and it can be reduced by producing an easy micro-environment for plants to weather trip.
Temperature
When you are moving your plants with you in your own vehicle, keep the boxes with plants in the passenger section. When you need to use the trunk, cover the boxes in all sides with blankets to protect them form cold or heat. When you require to park your vehicle, leave it under a sunny area and close the windows during winter, park your vehicle in the shades and leave the windows little open in the summer. When you want to stay in a hotel room, bring your plants during night hours into your room.
Watering plants
“Cold and wet/hot and dry” are the two most fatal combinations for plants. When you are moving in winter, make sure that every plant is on the dry side on the relocation day, by watering them for the final time, 2 or 3 days in advance of the move. When you are shifting in summer, water the plants good in the morning of the packing day and leave the excess water drain away.
Insects
Keep the plants in dark colored plastic bag with a bug strip. Place the bag in a shady cool area for some hours, 2 or 3 weeks before the shift. If your plants did not get away from the bugs, leave your plants behind, as the problem soon gets out of hand in the process of moving boxes.
Light
Light getting into a dark box might be a hazard to your plants. 1 or 2 weeks before the relocation, pull a full curtain over the window to minimize the light.
You can hire best packers and movers such as movers & packers in Ahmedabad for moving your plants safely.
More tips for shifting your plants:
- A lot of moisture causes your plants to rot and make sure that there is enough air flow in moving boxes.
- Support plants and vines that contain weak stem.
- Put the hanging plants in separate boxes and gently collect the foliage on top.
- When you tie your large plants firmly, execute this with soft tying bands in the direction of the growth to stop the breakage.
- Desert plants like cactus, don’t need more water and allow better ventilation to reduce humidity.
- Tropical, ferns, seedlings and other fragile plants have to be shifted in your vehicle’s passenger area, but not in the trunk.
- Terraria have to be packed in ventilated boxes with more cushioning and take out the ornaments for the trip.
- Put the cuttings in sphagnum moss and cover them in plastic bags.
Grooming your plants for relocation
2 or 3 weeks before the relocation
- Read a good book about growing plants or consult your local florist for getting the details on pruning or trimming your plants.
- It would be more easy and manageable to pack the plants safely.
- Finally, take care against pests.
2 or 3 days before the move
- Water your plants finally, when you are shifting in winter season.
- Line your packages with plastic bags, so that the moisture will not weaken the boxes and not pass through.
- Put more holes on the sides of the boxes and the lid to make sure better ventilation and to avert more moisture.
- Mark on the boxes such as “Fragile plants” or “This side Up”
1 day before the move
- Water your plants well in the morning during summer.
- When your plants are in clay pots, cover each pot with wet newspaper and then with many layers of dry paper.
- Develop funnel shaped protective sleeves from the heavy paper and they should be in the diameter of its pot and the height of the plant.
- Put the sleeve surrounding the plant and ensure that the foliage is folded gently.
- Then, firmly tape it.
- Tie larger plants and their foliage alertly, if needed.
- Cover the pots and the foliage with a funnel paper.
- Covering bigger plants and their foliage interweaving, makes them much vulnerable to damage when they tip above.
- Place equal sized plants in the box.
- Leave ample space between the top and the lid of the tallest plant.
- Pots should be padded because they won’t dash against each other.
- Pack the tightly for stability and employ paper for more of cushioning.
On the relocation day
- Place a dry newspaper in winter or a damp newspaper in summer around the plant tops.
- Close the lids and tighten with tapes.
- When your plants and the documents are ready for the move, give them to the van operator, when he comes.
- When you are taking your plants in your own vehicle, ensure that the moving company knew they cannot be loaded into the container.
- Load your plants into your vehicle at the final minute and ensure that they won’t be tipped off or crushed over.
After reaching the destination
- Shift the plants inside the home and open the boxes as soon as possible.
- Leave your plants within the boxes to reduce the shock for some hours.
- Later, remove the packings and water them.
- In order to avert branches breaking, cut the base of the box and lift the plants by its lid.
- Put the plants in your garden or place them inside your house, where you get direct sunlight up to 1 or 2 weeks after the shift.
- If you have to relocated to a colder city, use cool fluorescent white lights.
- When you have taken the cuttings, take out from the plastic wrap and plant them without any delay.
- Sometimes, a simple shock or accumulation of ethylene in the vehicle can cause the leaves to turn yellow and drop down. It is normal and it should not occur.
- The altitude, water and air quality, moisture content and so on might be little different in your new home.
- Some plants might required to be re-planted using a lighter or heavier mix of soil and a local horticulturist could advise you.
The above provided practical ideas and tips are very helpful in moving your plants safely from one place to another without any problem.