General Plant Growing Query

[synaesthesia]

Just a simple question here, when recieving a plant that is bare rooted in moss, is it a good idea to try and get the roots into some rooting powder even at least some of the root before it is planted out into soil?

Sorry i had to create a thread for this. If any other ppl have general queries they could put them here as well.

Thanks.

[noun]

The plant allready has the roots. No need for the rooting powder. Just provide the right conditions to reduce shock.

[Torsten]

This is a very good question actually and definitely deserves a thread.

Noun has pretty much answered it already. Just wanted to add that the best way to care for the plant is to understand how it works.

The roots that you see do not absorb much water. The absorption is done by minute root hairs that line the visible roots. There are millions of them even on a small plant. These hairs need to be in contact with water or wet soil to absorb the water for the plant. When you place a bare rooted plant into new soil it takes a few days for these hairs to make contact with the moist soil. That is why new plants have to be watered more often in the first week or two.

Besides watering more you can also reduce stress for the plant by removing some leaves. The less leaves it has, the less water the plant loses. We recommend to remove at least 50% of all leaf surface and personally we remove up to 90% of it in our business. Leaves are not important to the plant at that point. The nutrients it needs are in the stem and new leaves will grow according to what the plant can sustain in terms of water loss.

Bare roots also have lots of tiny injuries. These injuries can cause infectiosn just like scrapes and cuts can cause infections on your skin. This is why it is important that bare rooted plants are given perfect conditions immediately so that they are happy and can begin to heal straight away. Water stress by not taking the above paragraphs into consideration will leave the plant stressed and not ready to heal.

It all sounds more dramatic than it is, but these are the factors involved when things do go wrong. Fact is that we can ship most tropical plants overseas without any major damage and they will thrive if treated right on arrival. Many tropicals will cope with several weeks in transit, so a few days across australia are negligible.

[BlackDragon]

Also, application of a "clean" unadulterated(no ferts) seaweed extract soluiton is also terrific to reduce transplant shock.. Best to apply as a light foliar spray once a day for the first week or so.

[inpsyght]

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Edited February 7, 2012 by inpsyght

[planthelper]

there is aswell another factor involved. roots which have been damaged have a natural reaction of compensating for this damage. obviously the plant sends it's own hormons or what ever it is that regulates this root development, at all those areas with the result that root formation is increased for a while!!

another example to give insight into what i mean, happens if you repot, specialy if you repot pot bound plants. research has shown that plant's grow much better if one draws a knife thru the root ball or disturbs it with any means, than when you leave it the way it was. the disturbance will result in new root development on a much larger scale than some undisturbed roots.

applying hormons to those slightly damaged roots very well might aid root formation but allways apply ever so little of it. if you "wrap" the small roots in a thick cover of rooting powder (or gel) than this action will not be as beneficial. but anyway applying rooting powder under this circumstances is a bit of an overkill.

another term which comes to my mind is "wounding", wounding can increase rootformation when you take cuttings. damaged roots because of bare rooting, basicly constitutes a form of root wounding,

so after all those plants might even benefit from all of this!!