pick_me

4/08/2008

When Roots Invade

roots from hyacinth bulb
Roots from my Hyacinth Bulb.


A few days ago I decided it was time to do some root trimming. Some of my pots had become rather root bound so i just though I would trim off the bottoms and maybe some of the side to give them some more room. Surprisingly the pots I thought would be the most root bound were not at all. There were a few that were just all roots and it made me wonder were did all that dirt go? My snapdragon was just a ball of roots. Seriously I don't know if root cutting is right or wrong but I'm experimenting. So far no signs of shock so all is good. The mint got cut in half since it became a beast. It's roots were also trimmed because it gets root bound in no time.

I didn't have any luck with my Woodstock Hyacinth Bulbs. The flowers would come out then dry up in a day. Or the flowers would come up already dried out. I'm not sure what happened. Possibly it was too hot for them. I wanted to take the hyacinths and throw them out. I started with the pot that had 2 hyacinths, some candytufts and godetia. I was amazed at what I saw when I pulled everything out of the pot. The whole bottom half of the container was roots. They were healthy roots though. There was so much all coiled up. It looked like some thin rope or thick fishing line. When I unwrapped the roots they were the length of my forearm. This was another pot that somehow the soil just disappeared from the bottom. Out in the trash those hyacinths went. The godetia and candytuft hardly had any roots at all. I have another Hyacinth bulb but I have seedling growing in the same container. If I was to take to that bulb I would end up ripping up seedlings too. I'm assuming the other hycainth has just as many roots or more since it is in a much larger container.

4 comments:

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Vanillatotus ... now those are ROOTS girl ! LOL
Joy

Rusty in Miami said...

My experience with root bound plants in containers is that a good trimming never hurts

chey said...

Wow...those are beautiful roots! Great photo!

Element said...

Great looking roots. I trim roots all the time. Just a warning, if you trim to much the plant will switch from growing green upper growth and switch back to root growing.