Potting experiment!

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Earlier this week, my brother in law had given me some spare petunias that he had and I potted a few to see what happened. These were typical “Walmart or Home Depot 6-packs” that are usually severely root-bound because of the small containers:

I just hate these things because when you cut the plants out of the “six-pack”, here’s what you get:

We have root-bound plants that have been so crowded that the roots are all growing together, but the price was right. So how do I plant something like this?

I tried something new this evening and filled a pot with my best organic potting soil, then used the discarded planter to leave exact depressions in the soil:

The result was an exact replica of the planter, so there would be very little “air-gaps” in the soil and minimize any “transplant shock”:

The “test plants” were then placed in a solution of compost tea, apple cider vinegar, molasses, and seaweed extract to fully hydrate the root system before planting:

After the “test plants” were in the pot, I gave them a good “root drench” of the solution that they had soaked in to minimize any “transplant shock”:

Here is the new little babies in their new home:

Notice that I did not disturb the roots this time. I want to see if severely root bound plants can re-establish a normal root system over time.
This will be MOST interesting to watch in the following weeks because I planted a few other petunias from the same bunch using the dry-rooting method. We shall see what happens!
_N2O

• 28 Mar, 2010
• 4 likes

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