Don't think that your house plants need repotting two or three times a year if they are growing in good-sized pots. Once a year is quite often enough if you apply fertilizers at intervals of four or five months. Plants in small pots may outgrow their quarters, and these should be shifted to those of larger size when they have filled the old ones with roots.
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Don't make the mistake of putting small plants in large pots, thinking that they will be benefited by it. Wait for them to signify a desire for more room by filling all the soil of a small pot with roots. A plant with a small, weak root-system is often seriously injured by giving it a large pot to grow in, as it is not in a condition to make use of all the nutriment in a large amount of soil. A plant treated in this manner will often develop a sort of vegetable dyspepsia as a result of giving it more food than it can digest properly.
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Don't be in too great a hurry to obtain results. Some persons think to accomplish this by frequent applications of strong fertilizers in large quantities. This will force plants to a rapid and always unhealthy growth, from which, later on, there is sure to be a most discouraging reaction. Be content with a healthy growth, and give your plants a chance to make that naturally. More plants are injured by overfeeding than from any other cause.
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Don't think that you can learn all there is to know about gardening from books. Books will furnish the theory. You must contribute experience in order to attain success.
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Don't neglect your plants while they are growing. Then is just the time to give them the training that is necessary to make them shapely. The fact is, plants are very much like children in the family. Let them have their own way about everything while they are growing up and you will find that when they have grown up they are not at all like what you would like to have them, in many respects, and you don't see how you are going to make them conform to your ideas of what they ought to be, since it is impossible to make children of them again and give you another chance at their development. Begin with the training of your plants while they are small, and train them as they grow.
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