It is crucial that you know how to care for your rosemary when it comes to watering and fertilizing after transplanting it. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might lose the plant, so let me teach you.
Rosemary should be watered immediately after being transplanted but it should not be fertilized. Water is necessary for the roots to establish themselves in the new spot while fertilizing shortly after transplanting can cause the roots to become burned. Wait at least one month before fertilizing.
In this article, I will share a great trick I use to water my rosemary from the moment I transplant it, which can actually help the roots grow better. First, though, I will explain why it is crucial that you water right after transplanting and why you shouldn’t fertilize right away or maybe even ever.
Why You Should Always Water Rosemary After Transplanting
One of the most common mistakes people make when transplanting their herbs such as rosemary is that they forget to water them immediately after.
You should always water rosemary after transplanting it regardless if you transplant it into the ground or into another pot. This is crucial since the roots need moisture to become established in their new spot and will dry out otherwise.
That said, rosemary is easy to overwater so once you have transplanted it and given it a thorough watering in its new spot, go right back to your normal watering schedule.
In fact, forgetting to water and watering too much are both common reasons rosemary can die after being transplanted. I have another article where I go into more detail about these and other reasons rosemary can die after being transplanted.
Rosemary doesn’t like to stay in soil that is soggy and will die relatively quickly. A good general rule of thumb is to wait until the top inch or two (2.5-5 cm) of the soil becomes dry before you water more.
I wish I could tell you to water on a specific schedule but there are a lot of factors at play so that wouldn’t be accurate. Instead, you need to feel the soil to know if you should water.
But again, watering right after transplanting your rosemary is crucial.
Forgetting to water after transplanting is a common mistake that I have also made before but it is not the only one. In fact, many things can go wrong when you transplant, which is why I wrote an article specifically about common mistakes when transplanting rosemary and how you can avoid them.
Why You Should Not Fertilize Rosemary After Transplanting
Generally speaking, rosemary doesn’t need much fertilizer (or any at all) but can it be used to give the plant a small boost after being transplanted? That is a question I found myself wondering about one of the first times I transplanted rosemary. I figured other people might have the same question, so here is the answer.
Rosemary should not be fertilized right after being transplanted since it can cause the roots to become burned. Instead, wait at least a month after transplanting before you fertilize your rosemary to avoid problems.
While the plant can benefit from light fertilization at least a month after being transplanted, it is actually usually not necessary to ever fertilize rosemary. It is definitely easier not to and the plant will do just fine.
The exception is if your soil is too poor or lacking specific minerals. In that case, you should definitely do a soil test and figure out exactly what your soil is missing and get some fertilizer specifically for that purpose. Soil tests can be bought cheaply at almost all garden centers and are definitely worth it.
I feed some of my rosemary plants occasionally but to be honest, the difference between the ones I give fertilizer and the ones I don’t is minimal.
If you do decide to fertilize your rosemary after transplanting, make sure to wait at least a full month and be sure to look out for fertilizer burn, and stop fertilizing immediately if you notice it. Luckily fertilizer burn is pretty easy to identify. The tips of the leaves will become brown. It is what happened to one of my plants which you can see in this photo.
So while it can help the plant grow slightly faster, you have to be careful with fertilizing rosemary and you should definitely not use any right after transplanting.
Bottom Water Rosemary After Transplanting to Help the Roots
It is crucial that you water your rosemary after transplanting it but how you do it matters too.
Sure, watering by just pouring water on top of the soil will do the trick as the water will seep down into the soil and reach the roots.
If you grow your rosemary in pots, though, I have a great trick that can help the roots establish themselves and grow better and faster after transplanting.
Bottom watering by pouring water into the plate underneath the pot like I do in the photo above is a great way to encourage root growth. This can help rosemary establish itself in a new spot faster after being transplanted as it encourages the roots to stretch and grow the reach the water.
Of course, bottom watering is only possible if you keep your rosemary in a pot or container with one or more drainage holes at the bottom. If there are no drainage holes in the pot you keep your rosemary in, you should definitely transplant your rosemary into one that has.
Without drainage holes, not only can you not bottom water your rosemary, but excess water will also stay in the pot for a long time, which, as I mentioned earlier in this article, rosemary doesn’t like. In fact, its roots will quickly rot in soggy soil, which eventually causes the plant to die.
If you haven’t already picked a pot to transplant your rosemary into, I highly recommend that you choose a terra cotta pot (or a pot made from another type of unglazed clay) since the material allows moisture to escape through the sides in addition to through the drainage hole, further improving drainage.
I always use terra cotta pots for my potted rosemary and it makes it much easier to water it without overwatering it. That’s why I always recommend it to other people who ask me.
Easy Step-By-Step Guide on How to Transplant Rosemary
Transplanting rosemary is not the most complicated task, but there are still a lot of potential mistakes you can make and things that can go wrong. So I wrote some easy step-by-step guides to make it as easy as possible.
If you want to put a potted rosemary into another pot, head over to my guide on repotting rosemary. I also have a guide on how to put potted rosemary in the ground.