A DISCUSSION ABOUT SOLUTIONS TO GARDEN PROBLEMS

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Seems to me that everyone has has met-up-with and , many times solved, problems relating to the care and propogation of plants (veggies, trees, and flowers).
Im seeking some good advice (forget the plethora of links cause Im a tactile person who rarely reads directions). My first query is in the planting of really root bound flower plants.
We are still planting WAVE PETUNIAS cause they quickly adapt and reward you with a masses of bright blooms that attract hummingbirds like Senior Citi zines at Tuesday Night 20% off sales at your towns restaurant.
The wave petunias I bought were in these little "6 pack" plastic carriers . When I got em home and started planting I saw how the roots had surrounded the inside of eah little pot so that no soil and only plant roots could be seen.
These plants were 1.25 a six pack so I am certainly not gonna waste the gas taking em back and seeking a refund. SO, here's my question.
I planted the petunias into big concrete patio pots that we keep around the base of the patio walls and I want the petunias to pendulously hang out of the pots and give lots of color as we sit outside this summer. However, Before I planted the little things,...
I RIPPED THE CRAP OUT OF THEIR POT BOUND ROOT MASSES. I almost de rooted the plants so that I had a piece of root mass in one hand and a really good mass of roots in the other . still attached to the plants. I then planted the severely root pruned plants and watered them really well so that the planting medium was thoroughly saturated. IS such an approach a recommended way of transplanting root bound flowers?
Im interested in any advice or experience anyone has had in this arena.

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@farmerman,

Don't know, but you are not using the same definition of root pruning that has been my understanding. I thought root pruning involved cutting or digging through the roots in sections around the main plant in an attempt to produce more root hairs close to the main plant prior to transplanting. The process usually took a full year.

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@farmerman,

if you badly tore the roots, and anti-fungal agent might not be a bad idea.

I very carefully try to separate out the mass of roots, but sometimes there is no other way than to tear them...

with cactus it's critical that they not be torn.

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@farmerman,

I thought you were a gentle teaser with a penchant for nutrient rich watering.

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@laughoutlood,

I don't think Id do a heavy dose of fertilizer on planting these torn roots. It may burn the remaining ones. In the watering of the plants I did hve a dose of Vitamin B-1 to induce a good "take" by the plants. I wont begin feeding them for a few weeks as they start to bloom.

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@Rockhead,

It pissed me off to have missed an optimal planting of these small pots of Wave Petunias. They feed the pllants in the Amish nursery in order to induce early blooming in the sales room. That's a gentle reminder to buy. However, this spring was cold and wet and I lost a few plants to intermittent frosts in MAY.

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@roger,

yeh, normal root pruning is for perennials. I was merely trying to get some of these petunias planted in big pots for visual interest and attracting hummingbirds.

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@farmerman,

I see that the USDA has reissued their "Planting Zone MAp" of the US. Everybody has gone up a zone since 1990.
USDA says its because of "better data", I say its Climate Change in action. The entire circum Chesapeake Zone is now 7B. That's almost sub tropical. I have noticed that people have been planting intolerant plants like Crepe Myrtle farther north in the last 25 years or so. Ive got two of em and they wouldn't have lived for a single season during the 1970's

I wonder what new plants youd consider in your newly acquired climate zone?
Im lookin at some South Carolina palms like they grow in Dublin Irelnd.

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@farmerman,

Not having read any other comments, I am going to say yes. I do that all the time. If they're root-bound, you push your thumbs in there and spread the roots apart, always, always, always. If you cut or rip some of the roots off, it's no big deal. In fact, they recommend you do that. So you're good to go. It's really hard to kill petunias - mainly happens when you don't water - so don't worry.

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With with root bound petunias, I either spread the roots with my hands or take off the bottom half of the mass altogether.

They are a hardy flower and bounce back. I usually mix half super tunes and the wave for a fuller pot. Fertilize ASAP.

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@PUNKEY,

Ill fertilize next weeks , although I did apply a water based vit B-1

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@farmerman,

I've almost never bought annual flowers as such (I like perennials in gallon or qt containers), so I don't know re their sensitivity to your treatment. I'm pretty wary re root binding, part of my pickiness about nurseries. But wary or not, we find ourselves with bound roots back home from a nursery. In my experience, it is usually a curled gathering at the bottom and somewhat to the sides of, say, a 1 or 5 gallon plant. I remove the bottom curled mess entirely, and slice up the sides. They've always (in memory) grown ok.

I guess I'd do the same in miniature with root bound six pack plants.

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@farmerman,

Root pruning is also a phrase for what arborists might do with shallow rooted street trees planted in too small a space, often a poor design choice by some cities.

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@ossobuco,

we do prune iris roots waay back so there but a single small 9but firm) tuber from which a plant emerges and blooms the next year after planting. All other perennials Ive never done the root slash as you have osso. I will be more bold next time. (I just bought about 20 fall asters and these get to be giant chrysanthemum sized plants with lavender or deep purple blooms (Wishh theyd produce a white so we could hve a contrasting color)

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This is basically on the outside of the root ball - the bottom morass and maybe 5? - depends on the size of the plant - vertical outside cuts on the web that grips the vertical of the rootball, or some loosening if it's not a web. If it is all encircled too, I'd pull some of those sideways to reach into whatever soil you're adding on the sides.

In LA and northern california I didn't personally use much or any fertilizer, having already great soil. Here in sandland, I don't have what most would call soil, more like pure sand, so I'm interested in natives which I treat minimally, except for my swath of rosemary and lavender which have been fine for years, except that I've mistreated them lately (but they're coming back, knock on wood).

Anyway, try the root pruning out, but if it's a matter of a big number of large container perennials... smarter to have a nursery with good stock.

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Speaking of a gamble, right now I'm nursing a volunteer desert willow (Chilopsis liniaris) that I just dug out from right next to a concrete path. I get about one volunteer every two years, so while they do reseed, getting rid of volunteers isn't onerous. It's presently sitting in my sink in a bowl of water. We'll see - easy come, easy go. If it works, it's a sweet relatively small tree and goes with the neighborhood, there being an allee of them a few doors down the street from me.

http://www.treenm.com/nm-tree-species/desert-willow/

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@ossobuco,

lavender and rosemary would also do real well where I lived in the hills above Sacramento. The soil was well drained. Around here I cant keep a lavender more than 2 years because the soil is very clayey. Id like to grow lavndar. We go to a lavender farm in Delaware where they make their own soaps and sauces . They are called lAvendar Fields (maybe theres a web site)

The Desert willow is a tree I recall from some of my guys houses (Our offices were out near Sandia Labs and many of the scientists lived nearby. nd some lived up in the hills behind Sandia Mountain. Those trees were neat. I remember their orchid purple flowers.

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@farmerman,

I'm a lavender and rosemary nut, which is odd for someone with little/no sense of smell, but I love beauty and I can taste rosemary. I remember the roadside swaths of tuscan rosemary, and other folks' photos of lavender fields in France. I took my own photo once of a field of lavender in front of beeches at the Filoli estate (a pal volunteered there), made a painting of it, another friend in another part of the state bought it. Thinking, I've done at least three lavender paintings over the years. One was too close a riff on something I saw in a magazine, but in its way was generic.

On you and lavender, how about some kind of raised bed contraption?

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@ossobuco,

Adds, the Chilopsis is still perky in the sink.

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@ossobuco,

ANYBODY else plant garlic last October?
Im about to harvest mine and the bulbs are huuuge. I guess Ill dry them by hanging in the hayloft on the tobacco lath we inherited with the farm.

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