Gardening 102: Reason 2 for early transplants. Incidentally the bigger seeds were transplanted in smaller plugs. In such a situation if the plant has to stay in constrained space for long, theres a danger of it becoming ROOTbound. Definition: You will find that many plants you buy will be rootbound. Before you buy a plant, if you turn it over and if roots are shooting out of the drainage hole, chances are that the plant is rootbound or sometimes called potbound. Once you take the plant out of its nursery pot, if the plant is rootbound you can see that the roots have completely taken up the pot, often circling and creating a dense web of roots. This means the plant has been in its pot for too long and that potentially it has not been getting the nutrition it needs from the soil because their simply isnt enough potting soil left in the pot because it has been replaced with roots. The other problem with a rootbound plant is that if you dont separate the roots and plant it as is, the roots will continue to grow in the same circular pattern as in the pot, not spreading out to take advantage of soil and water. Depending on the plant, its relatively easy to fix the problem, but it may take some strength and courage because you will have to rip or cut the roots. Whats important to remember is that most plants are pretty tough. Though some dont like you messing with their roots, most will be just fine and will grow better after their constricted roots have been untangled or cut. The goal is to allow the plant to spread its roots so what I do with a rootbound plant is first try to peel the roots away from the ball they have formed. For some plants, like pansies or annuals, you can usually just tear the compacted roots with your hands. For plants with bigger tougher roots, I take a serrated knife or sharp shovel and cut the roots, either making slices down the sides of the plant, or making a cross cut on the bottom of the plant, then spreading out the four quarters of rootball Im left with. While its better to try to buy a plant that is not rootbound, I find that sometimes there is no choice, and rarely (if ever) killed a plant from the treatment described above. Source: containergardening.about, Author Kerry Mitchaels
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 16:06:01 +0000