"Massaging" the roots?

I am about to transplant later tonight and a friend told me to "massage" the roots kinda, break em apart and then put them in the new dirt. Is that advisable? I haven't read or found anything on that to make an informed decision.

If by massage he meant gently break up clods and slightly separate the roots then yes, this can help the plant disburse its roots. If you do it incorrectly you are going to tear a bunch of roots which will NOT help your plants. To be honest if the plant isn't root bound or ringing around the pot yet and your soil isn't compacted you really shouldn't need to do this.

You can do it if you have a very gentle touch, but no matter what you are going to break some roots. If you are gentle from start to finish there would be no reason to break up your roots unless it is severely root bound. If you are root bound, and can't even get your fingers in the middle of the root ball, just grab a knife and make one cut from the bottom, going to inches up through the root ball, just two inches. you can open it up a little if you like, but the roots will work themselves out. Severing the roots causes hundreds of new feeder roots to shoot out from the cut.

If you want a stress free transplant, put one of your existing buckets (I'm assuming you are starting with 1gal) into your new buckets (I'm assuming you are going to 5gal) with a little bit of dirt already on the bottom of the 5 gal. Now fill in dirt around your 1 gal container until the bucket is full. Slip out your 1 gal container and you have the perfect fit for your transplant, I do this, and I usually have tap roots sticking out of drainage holes in 5 days.

Weather or not a plant is root bound, unless it is flowering, the roots will find new dirt on their own, probably with less stress and time than if you tried to assist them.

Unless root bound, minimal root disturbance is the best way to transplant.

If its root bound,you can snip each side on the bottom,with a clean pair of scissors.

lol is there an echo in here?

lol yup, Root Bound, Roo(root)t B(bound)ound

Yea, I'm unfamiliar with root bound, ill look that up and see what it looks like and stuff like that, I was hoping to transplant before i even see the roots, tis why i put the seeds in such big pots. But ill check out that stuff, thanks guys.

Sure, its it's ok to give your roots a massage as long as you give them a happy ending.
You dont want pissed off roots now do you?

cruzer101 said:

Sure, its it's ok to give your roots a massage as long as you give them a happy ending.
You dont want pissed off roots now do you?

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lol nice! Ill have the wife teach me some techniques! lol