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Roots?

H

halo_players_junkyard

I was getting the garden ready to plant today and a could plants had been left in the ground over winter. When I pulled them, the root ball was about 1.25 feet across, but you could definatly make out exactly what shape and where the pot had been before transplantsing. Is this normal? Or do I need to add some perlite to the soil? Or what?don't get me wrong, there produced well, just wondering.
 
yup....... the general area where u place the plants in the ground definitely maintains the original shape of the pre-potted plant..... in some cases i even found the pro-mix from the prior grow bag.... well that's just my experience n~e ways
 
This is a result of not breaking up the root ball. Whenever I transplant I always break it apart and then the new roots will grow beyond the original ball.
The fear of doing this is irrational and goes against what I was taught as good gardening practices. I've done this for more years than I care to count and I've done it with my Habaneros with good effect and minimal trauma to the plant. When the plant does recover it goes gangbusters.
Plants are plants are plants. I even do it to my orchids and they do just fine. Cheers.
 
AjarnV said:
This is a result of not breaking up the root ball. Whenever I transplant I always break it apart and then the new roots will grow beyond the original ball.
The fear of doing this is irrational and goes against what I was taught was good gardening practices. I've done this for more years than I care to count and I've done it with my Habaneros with good effect and minimal trauma to the plant. When the plant does recover it goes gangbusters.
Plants are plants are plants. I even do it to my orchids and they do just fine. Cheers.
Click to expand...

+1 I always loosen up the dirt in the rootball before I transplant. I think it helps the roots spread out rather than remaining in its previous confined space.
 
Yea there are more than a few people on this board that are extremely careful with their plants. They try to not disturb the rootball at all. Me, well I've hacked and slashed rootballs to the point that you just wouldn't think that they would survive. They've always done better than the ones that haven't been touched. They are a lot tougher than you might think
 
My great grandfather passed this advice down to me. I've never down any thing but break up the root ball on transplant. So really i knew of no difference until now. As always thanks for the great info!!
 
I think it's especially important to understand that only new roots feed the plant. The root tips release an acidic solution to break down the soil to get usable nutrients. Breaking up the root ball stimulates new root growth.
As I've said on other threads; I'm not recommending this for seedlings, but for plants that are old enough to have become root bound. Common sense must prevail. Cheers.
 
I agree with the above. Any plant thats root bound Will benefit from opening up the roots just be careful if the plant has a tap root. plants are pretty strong
 
I make 4 slashed up and down the sides of a root ball and scratch an X on the bottom with a razor knife. I've done it for 15 years professionally and 20+ years personally. It works like a charm
 
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