Dont listen to the pessimist, it will survive.
I always keep them in paper towels until the shell comes off, sometimes the root breaks on one or two but they always and i mean always make it
Old thread, but for anyone who cares to know. (My apologies to the old school guys in advance for shaking it up a bit). In my experience, Root pruning is great. When it's a taproot, it becomes interesting. I've done multiple experiments now and it seems to all point one way. Traditionally, we believe that the taproot hits the bottom of the container it is in and then it starts spreading out. This is why the plant size changes dramatically when planted in the ground vs potted. (so long as the ground is not loaded with clay and rock). What I have learned when the tip of the root starts growing into the paper towel or just has too much moisture on it while it's in there, is that it's like topping the plant. If the root looks healthy other than the tip breaking off, it will be just fine but it will be stunted by a few days getting out of the ground compared to the normal time you experience. The interesting part is that now that that tip is damaged, the roots will grow mostly sideways until they reach the edge of the pot, then they grow downward as they figured out already that up = light and too much O², which in turn, = Death. This is especially ideal for the growers who do it like TGA/Nugbuckets did with a layer of hot soil in the bottom third of the pot. Now with the growth of the root changed, the plants won't have as high of a risk of dipping into the hot stuff too soon. Yes, the plants are overall a little smaller, but as long as you rock out the amendments every three of four weeks, you'll still get a good haul even though the plant is smaller. If you know the genetics have a habit of damping off root tips, plan ahead and germ more to pack the space. I had Blue Dream 'Matics that 36/40 did exactly that and I stuffed them all in rapid rooters soaked in clonex and the split them. I sprinkled the split with mycorrhizae, and popped the rooters into 4-6-4 amended coco/perlite with mycorrhizae and nematodes (for killing fungus gnat larvae). I watered with superthrive, clonex (for the hormones as well), and Azos. They all did just fine. the 4 that didn't break all made it to about 100cm without topping. The other 36 were topped to 8 tops a piece and tied down (another one from Nugbuckets and his mainlining thread) (since I thought, "well, they're f*cked anyway) and they averaged 3 zips a plant. . . . .indoors.....organic bloom cycle, so, yeah. a broken taproot is not the end of the world, or of a plant. it just changes the dynamic a bit. But that is why I love nature, she's always got me on my toes and teaching me sh!t I didn't know every day. Let's also not forget the plant itself, with it's resilience and ability to thrive, even when things of less than optimistic circumstance occur. There's your bump NwGKenny. lol