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Root bound permanance?

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

If a plant gets root bound due to the size of a container, will it recover / spread its roots out once it is transplanted or does it kind of get trained?  Need to decide between transplanting and loosing grow space or moving problem plants to low light area hoping to slow growth.  Goal being to get to spring with the highest number of transplants ready to go outdoors, not to have mammoth indoor plants.
 
i grow sea of green, so when something gets too tall I lob off the top and make a clone.  Problem is, some of the mama plants now have roots coming out the bottom of the containers despite being relatively short.
 
Hmmmm interesting scenario.  If hydroponic I would say "No".  Plantys are constrained by nutrient limitation when pot-grown - so under "normal" growing conditions (pots outside, soil mix, std watering and fertillising) being root-bound basically dwarfs them.  Even regular applications of fertilliser won't make them grow much bigger - they'll remain vigourous to an extent - the new growth will be smaller but at leats its there.
 
in hydro systems the roots will fill whatever space and be constantly flushed with fresh water and nutrients and they also don't tend to become as woody as soil-grown plant - not much need for it.
 
If you do transplant root-bound plants the best is to untangle the root ball or snip at leats a third of it off to allow for fresh root production.  I cut almost half off and then prune the top and sides accordingly so that there is a balance betwwen root and shoot.
 
My suggestion is, treat them as you would a plant for overwintering. Brutal, but take a ginsu to the roots and trim them down, as well trim the upper plant a bit and transplant in fresh soil.
 
:rofl:   RS beat me to it, so yea what he said.
 
root bound plants in soil will stop growing.
i made the mistake of planting root bound 3in cups into bigger containers(5gals) and they never really took off.
 
4 months later when i cleaned them out of the 5 gal bags i found that the initial root bound clump was still there all stuck together and there wasn't many roots coming out of it.
 
see the clumps of roots how they are all balled up at base of stem? .... same exact size as 3in pot  :tear:
IMG_20141114_150439.jpg
 
juanitos said:
root bound plants in soil will stop growing.
i made the mistake of planting root bound 3in cups into bigger containers(5gals) and they never really took off.
 
4 months later when i cleaned them out of the 5 gal bags i found that the initial root bound clump was still there all stuck together and there wasn't many roots coming out of it.
 
see the clumps of roots how they are all balled up at base of stem? .... same exact size as 3in pot  :tear:
IMG_20141114_150439.jpg
Click to expand...
 
This happens when you transplant in the middle of flower (other plant) or when you water like a 'tard.
 
Other than those two scenarios I've never seen rootbound be 'permanent'.

Hey Drew how long you been growing?
 
Able eye, produce for farmers market about 8 years but for the most part the only container growing I have done has been to create starts to move outside or which meet other ends before they outgrow their container.  Before this year's efforts (which started last year) I'd never started so early so I never had a problem outgrowing two liter containers.  It is not a huge problem because each mama plant that is getting root bound has already given me many clones.  So even if the mama's were to drop dead, things would be fine.  Just kind of poking around for ideas and the best production per watt of electricity / space.
 
On transplanting during flowering: I -think- when the flowering trigger is turned on (light for some, night temp for others) they turn off root production and send every bit of energy into flowering.  However, I have noted that with plants which trigger flowering by light cycle, the first two weeks of flower cycle is spent with massive new vegetative growth.  Might be some root growth there too.  Kind of like nesting, getting ready for the young ones to arrive.

 
 
I'm trying an experiment this year with some homemade fabric pots that are about the same size as solo cups, on a handful of my seedling pot-ups. I want to compare the roots and growth with the others at plant out time, and throughout the year. I keep reading that the fabric pots help prevent root-boundness. I'll post the results on my glog later this year. If it does work well, then a smaller footprint of pots could be maintained indoors until plant out.
 
Here's a few that I did earlier this week. It's basically cheap landscape fabric cut, folded over and sides hot glued, then inverted. I brought the bottom corners inside and tacked those together with glue too, to help form a square shape. I don't have the exact measurements in front of me, but I thing the pieces were around 12 x 6 inches. I think you can make around 300 of these small pots from a 50 x 3 foot piece of fabric.
 
Hk2gWInl.jpg
 
I'll just leave this here then.
 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120701191636.htm
 
I know this doesnt directly answer your question but perhaps gives some clues.
 
Like I said in my experience they wont readily regrow roots if theyre more than 2-3 weeks into a flowering cycle.
 
Or if they are just poorly taken care of by someone who doesnt understand that even peppers grow in cycles and doesnt know how to bring them back to a more vegetative state out of a stress induced flowering cycle.
 
Peter S said:
 I keep reading that the fabric pots help prevent root-boundness. I'll post the results on my glog later this year. If it does work well, then a smaller footprint of pots could be maintained indoors until plant out.
 
Click to expand...
 
I would just call it a different kind of rootbound. Although I think the plants get better use from the same volume.
Peter S said:
I'm trying an experiment this year with some homemade fabric pots that are about the same size as solo cups, on a handful of my seedling pot-ups. I want to compare the roots and growth with the others at plant out time, and throughout the year. I keep reading that the fabric pots help prevent root-boundness. I'll post the results on my glog later this year. If it does work well, then a smaller footprint of pots could be maintained indoors until plant out.
 
Here's a few that I did earlier this week. It's basically cheap landscape fabric cut, folded over and sides hot glued, then inverted. I brought the bottom corners inside and tacked those together with glue too, to help form a square shape. I don't have the exact measurements in front of me, but I thing the pieces were around 12 x 6 inches. I think you can make around 300 of these small pots from a 50 x 3 foot piece of fabric.
 
 
Click to expand...
 
I made some out of probably the same cheap landscape material that was the same size. It was $6 a roll IIRC. Mine were sewn but still gave out at the end of the year. Your fingers will just go str8 through the material eventually.
 
With plants grown in soil I know plenty of people who gently work/break the roots apart when they are transplanted and they come out fine. That said, I think that method only would work early on  in the plants life cycle.
 
So, we're finally answering the age old question, "Does size really matter?"
 
 
 
Anyway...
 
 
These:

 
...came from these:

 
 
Grew well and produced well.  Some varieties better than others.
Some in-ground baccs over six feet tall.  Plants in pots were smaller.
(Not to say I'd have any problems with "43% larger".)
 
Dirt to hydro/hydro to dirt often.
 
Rootbound before mature--- break up the rootball (shake the dirt out) and give a bit of root hormone when planting.
They will continue to grow.
 
Mature in hydro---Dig a big@$$ hole, plant deep and use the hydro nutes for first watering.
If you live where it freezes in winter, they won't likely get much new growth, but will produce.
 
Planting in flower in the spring will likely confuse the hell out of them, especially if your indoor light cycle doesn't broadly match the natural light.
 
Peter S, it makes me feel so very happy to see others using solo cups and jumbo craft sticks.  Not sure if it is because it makes me feel less trashy or comforted to know there are other folk like me out there.  Fabric cups great idea.  I use newspaper twists for germinating.  Tried making them around solo cups for larger containers, but they rot and fall apart before they get into the ground.
 
Cone9, such a beautiful picture.  Please tell me there are areas on your property with mud and weeds.  Just a small patch will do.  I keep telling myself I will get around to painting that area of the fence or tilling under that patch of weeds, maybe haul off that car that hasnt run in 8 years, take photos and share but I never seem to get around to it.
 
Grotox, confused about what you said with respect to growing where it freezes.  I take clones and over winter to preserve specific dna of favorite plants, but can not imagine one staying in the ground and living past a freeze.  Am I reading something wrong in your post?  I gotta be.
 
I have transplanted multiple root bound plants , a lot during flowering , they have all continued growing and flowering as expected.. All I did was massage the roots a little to loosen them a bit

A few I decided to repot into even larger pots soon after and I could see all the feeder roots growing out and hitting the edges of the new pot, it's probably true that root bound is never a good way to grow plants but I'm not after crop production quantities so it hasn't really effected me .
 
I have transplanted multiple root bound plants , a lot during flowering , they have all continued growing and flowering as expected.. All I did was massage the roots a little to loosen them a bit

A few I decided to repot into even larger pots soon after and I could see all the feeder roots growing out and hitting the edges of the new pot, it's probably true that root bound is never a good way to grow plants but I'm not after crop production quantities so it hasn't really effected me .
 
KrakenPeppers, if you grow in rows outside do not look yourself up on google earth.  I did and realized just what a hack I am.  Not a row was straight or even.
 
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