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| Hello everyone, i just started containers indoors and out. A very wonderful person i am sure you all kmow him, Came to my rescue and together with his insruction. I learned how to cut down a rootball,using a saw and root pick. This was exciting. When i pot plants i would put them in the pot with the rootball in tact. Afraid i would hurt the roots. This morning i bought some plants. Before i put them in the pots i used my fun root pick to loosen rootball. I think i might have gotten too carried away with the root pick. I might have been thinking about the rootball deduction i did. So i basicly did this to my new plants. I didnt cut the rootball down,but i took out all the soil on eachone of the plants. Leaving just the healthy roots intact. Should i have just loosened the rootball on the bottom and left the soil around the little roots of the rootball? Does this mean i need to cut some of each plants foliage down? Ive already got them in the containers. Have i just killed my plants? I hope to get some advice soon
Thanks so much Lisa |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Lol - aren't we gung-ho! ;o) Root pruning isn't always necessary. Sometimes I bare-root/repot new plants the day I get them home because I don't like the soil they're in. Sometimes it's because they are very root bound. I tend to consider where the plants are in their growth cycle, the energy level of the plant, and how much of an 'emergency' I might consider a repot to be. I do most plants considered appropriate as houseplants in late jun early Jul. You get a break because of where you live & the extra sunshine you get in Sep & Oct. You're probably fine repotting houseplants now, but I think I would be repotting for one of the reasons I noted. What kind of plants were they? How large? How much of the root mass did you remove? Al |
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| Oh boy Al! I really went to town on them. I just love that root pick! The 3 were all outdoor pants.(notice how i said "were"lol) One is a gardenia 1gallon.The second one is or shall i say was, a trailing plant half gallon. Called la jolla bougainvillea,i got it cuz it was pretty. The last one is shrub with flowers,idont know name,5 gallon pot. Well, all three were rootbound. I thought i was doing good lol. I took off all the dirt and of course all the small roots came off with the dirt. The roots that i left seemed to be healthy,i think. I basicly did the way i did when i did the ficus oops! All my indoor plants are doing good except the creeping fig. Its dropping all its leaves and appears to be a little brittle. Hope to hear back from you Lisa |
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| We need to find out what you're doing that is causing the problems. Have you been fertilizing? Are you over-watering? How long have you had these plants? Do you have a cat? Tell me how you decide when it's time to water, please. I don't think the bougainvilla is going to take kindly to the aggressive root work, but we'll see. I know you're excited, but take a deep breath & slow down a little so you have a chance to consider the probable results of your efforts/ministrations. I think that if you move forward blindly, you're probably setting yourself up for some disappointments. Take care. Al |
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| Al, I dont have a cat I think the problem could be on my second ficus is not enough sun Plus the roots from the first ficus were a bit mushy. So i am guessing the second ficus (purchased at the same time)is that same way. I thinkit needs to be bare rooted. I am going to do the exact same thing i did on the other. Plus more sun. Good thing that bougainvillea was on sale HeeHee.... You are so right Al I always do something first and think later. I do keep a log in a notebook monitoring my plants. This keeps me on top of things LoL Lisa |
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| Roots don't get mushy from too much sun, unless you're allowing the soil to overheat and they're dying from that. I suspect you're over-watering, but can't be sure until you talk to me about your watering habits. 'Damp' is good - soggy/saturated/wet is not. The problem with soils like you were using is that you can't keep the soil 'damp' w/o a build-up of salts unless you take pains to flush the soil regularly. Al |
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| Hello Al, I am going to do a new project but i require some assistance. How do you prepare a rootball to go in to the gritty mix? Thanks a bunch LISA |
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| You just did it. The soil I sent you was the gritty mix, and you did a full repot with root pruning. A reiteration from above: 'Root pruning isn't always necessary. Sometimes I bare-root/repot new plants the day I get them home because I don't like the soil they're in. Sometimes it's because they are very root bound. I tend to consider where the plants are in their growth cycle, the energy level of the plant, and how much of an 'emergency' I might consider a repot to be. I do most plants considered appropriate as houseplants in late jun early Jul. You get a break because of where you live & the extra sunshine you get in Sep & Oct. You're probably fine repotting houseplants now, but I think I would be repotting for one of the reasons I noted.' Al
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| Al, i know i have the gritty mix. It had my sick ficus in it. After i took off all the dead wood,iwas left with only a trunk. I took the ficus out of mix. I went to home depot,saw some more ficus trees. In a week or 2 im gonna try a new ficus in that same mix ive got. All the plants are usually root bound. I dont want to mix the gritty stuff with soil from a new ficus. So i am going to bare root it as you showed me and put it in the same container i used for the first ficus. I wasnt sure you could mix the gritty stuff with dirt. But now i know LISA |
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| OK - good luck, Lisa. Al |
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| I have not read every word of your exchanges, but my experience with ficus, says they will drop their leaves at the first sign of distress. Repotting in better soil for long range container growing, may indeed be called for, but it would not surprise me if the tree lost much of its foliage in the first few weeks. Al |
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| Thank you for the reply calistoga, i will remember that. Al, just wanted to say hello, my bougainvilleas are all doing good(the 3 i barerooted). I got my new ficus cleaned up all the roots and it is now in your soil. I would like to see some pix of your plants,do you post them in any forums? Well its back to the soap operas! Lisa |
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| I have hundreds of photos scattered all over the forums. It would be redundant to post them again. See below for a very few. Al |
Here is a link that might be useful: Click me
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| I just remembered this thread I started a long time ago. See below for more pics, but some repeats. Al |
Here is a link that might be useful: Click me II
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| Al well i looked at the photos last night, wow i really loved all of them i especially like the bonsais on the benches Lisa |
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- Posted by jojosplants Az. Z9 (My Page) on Sun, Aug 29, 10 at 11:12
| Everything is beautiful!! And I see a few plants I would love to have in my yard, but they would probably cook. lol.. My hubby doesn't work in my garden or tend any plants, but even he likes to see Al's pictures. I love the little waving frog.. He is so cute! JoJo |
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| Thank you, ladies. ;o) Al |
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- Posted by oregonwoodsmoke 5 OR Sunset 1A (My Page) on Mon, Aug 30, 10 at 11:57
| I have seen bougainvillea growing in planters, but they were very large planters outdoors. They were also municipal planters, where they seem to consider plants to be disposable. The bougainvillea seemed happy enough, though. Do you have an outdoor garden spot to make the bougainvillea an outdoor plant? My father used to grow gardenia in containers. They were large redwood planters, perhaps 12-15 gallons. Those were outdoors and not indoors. That was half a century ago, so all I can remember about the gardenias was that the plants were lovely and healthy in their pots. So it can be done. |
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