It'll just stunt the plant. You wont notice it growing much if any for a week or so depending on how much of the root ball you ripped. I was transplanting 1 of my 6 from a 1 gal container to a 4 gal container and ripped the root ball in half. That plant took less than a week to recover and start growing, but I had put some willow water on it to help the roots recover and regrow.