Root Balls

[Capn-Crunch]

I have 20, 7 gallon fabric pots that had root bound plants in them.
I want to reuse the soil and amend it again.
Is there an easier way to break up the root ball, wet, dry, etc?
I'm hacking away at the dry root balls with an axe, lol

 

[doniawon]

Enzymes!
After hand removal .
Takes a few days but will turn old root matter into plant food.

 

[gold01ca]

I have 20, 7 gallon fabric pots that had root bound plants in them.
I want to reuse the soil and amend it again.
Is there an easier way to break up the root ball, wet, dry, etc?
I'm hacking away at the dry root balls with an axe, lol

And they say plants won't get root bound in fabric pots. are they actually or just super dense?

 

[doniawon]

And they say plants won't get root bound in fabric pots. are they actually or just super dense?

Roots tips will air prune, won't circle, but they will eat up a fabric pot

 

[Capn-Crunch]

Dense to the point that they look like a solid block of roots, no circling of the roots. I just need some soil for a tent grow this winter, otherwise
I would just wait till spring.

 

[Wetdog]

Dense to the point that they look like a solid block of roots, no circling of the roots. I just need some soil for a tent grow this winter, otherwise
I would just wait till spring.

What *I* do (assuming you don't need 20-7gal full), is knock off what dirt I can and cut the fine roots with hand pruners and add this back to the knocked off dirt, reamend and use for the next crop.

The dirt and the heavier root ball near the base of the plant gets chunked in a container or tote that will hold several and just let them break down on their own and deal with them the following spring.

The fine roots left in the mix should break down just fine as the next plant is growing, but with a root system that dense that mix has to be fairly depleted and should be reamended @ 1/2 to 3/4 of the original amendment amounts.

HTH

Wet

 

[SoMe_EfFin_MasS_HoLe]

Roots tips will air prune, won't circle, but they will eat up a fabric pot

What do you mean by eat up the fabric pot?

 

[doniawon]

What do you mean by eat up the fabric pot?

Fill it with fish bonez

 

[doniawon]

What *I* do (assuming you don't need 20-7gal full), is knock off what dirt I can and cut the fine roots with hand pruners and add this back to the knocked off dirt, reamend and use for the next crop.

The dirt and the heavier root ball near the base of the plant gets chunked in a container or tote that will hold several and just let them break down on their own and deal with them the following spring.

The fine roots left in the mix should break down just fine as the next plant is growing, but with a root system that dense that mix has to be fairly depleted and should be reamended @ 1/2 to 3/4 of the original amendment amounts.

HTH

Wet

Enzymes will cut months off the process.
Can reuse in a week if done right.
Pondzyme is cheap will last a long ass time and work the best imo. Bokashi is good too. Hygrozyme works but cost a fortune. .
If time isn't an issue, can cook and re ammend for sure. If u got a forrest near by there's plenty of good decaying rich goodness to b had free.

 

[Capn-Crunch]

I knocked off enough soil for what I needed, and will deal with the rest in the spring. Thanks for the ideas everyone.