How to plant a hanging basket from pots or plugs

On Todays 5minute Friday, we are going to show you how to plant a hanging basket with pots or plugs.
Lots of people this time of year are buying plug plants, we generally say it’s better to pot them into a 9cm pot first, so today we have both options.
These are Petunia, surfinia trailing petunia, they make for a fantastic basket, but they are tender, so they can’t take any frosts or really cold weather. If you pop them into a basket too early, which is fine they will grow, but you will need space for the container/basket on a windowsill or heated greenhouse. If you haven’t, you really do have to pot up the starter plants into 9cm pots to establish, and take up less space indoors.
These plants are only about a week different to each other, so you can see they are going to establish and grow quicker, with the extra space and feed.
We are going to pot them both up.
1. Fill your baskets with compost, for the starter plants fill just shy of the top. For the 9cm pots fill with compost, but not anywhere near as much as the other one. Tap them both down to release any air gaps.
2. We find generally it is better to plant in odd numbers, so make 3 holes, in a triangle, quite close to the middle so they have room to trail outwards. Our plugs come with a paper pot, which is biodegradable, so no need to remove it. Pop the plugs in and gently just tuck them in. If you feel it doesn’t look full enough, trust me, these are what we call aggressive plants, so they grow quickly and this basket will be filled with beautiful blooms.
3. With the 9cm pots, gently give them a squeeze to release the plant, now you will see although hardly any age difference, you can see the root growth that has established already. Just place these similarly around the pot, and then get the rest of the compost and just fill the gaps, this method ensures that we don’t tend to compact the compost quite so much.
4. Give them a good water and your baskets are complete.

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Would it be an idea to pinch out the tips of both the starter plants and the larger ones, to encourage branching?