When transplanting plants, the fine roots can be damaged. However, this can cause significant damage to the roots. Find out how to avoid this here.
If you want to relocate a plant in the garden to provide it with a better location or simply to improve the garden appearance, it can happen when excavating the plant that fine roots are accidentally severed. This has a great disadvantage for the plant itself and, depending on the plant species, can even damage the plant, which seriously endangers its he alth. But how do you actually get the very fine roots when transplanting the plant? And why is this so important?
Why are fine roots so important for the plant?
If there is a small or larger plant in the garden, it will not only develop a strong root trunk over time, but also very fine, easily fragile roots that can be severed with the slightest pull. These usually serve to supply the plant with nutrients and above all moisture - but they are specialized for the newer shoots and leaves. If they break off or fall away, newer shoots or leaves can no longer be adequately supplied, which means that the plant is undersupplied after transplanting and soon no longer appears he althy. The consequence: Various shoots can die off and in some cases the plant is even damaged so lastingly that it no longer properly recovers.
Why are the fine roots damaged when transplanting?
Even if every gardener or plant lover knows that the fine roots of the plant must be preserved as much as possible, they cannot always be saved. With smaller plants, while it's easy to dig up and lift out enough of the roots all the way around without damaging them, again the root unit with clods of earth is often so heavy that more extensive digging would be difficult. But if you have to dig up a larger tree or a generally older plant, you would have to use a very large diameter to get all the rootsseveral meters away from the stem of the plant. This is not only hardly possible due to the heavy weight of the soil and roots, but also an almost impossible task simply because of the high effort.
Even trying to generously dig out the diameter around the seedling and lift the root ball out of the ground, many of the small fibrous roots are already broken. This is because the weight of the heavy soil shifts at this moment and the fine roots can break as a result. Pulling the plant out of the ground too quickly and too vigorously also tears the fine roots very quickly. It is therefore very likely and almost to be expected, especially in the case of larger plants with widespread roots, that the fine and younger roots will break and the plant will suffer damage.
Preserve roots when transplanting
With smaller plants, it is not difficult to get the fine roots - if you lift them out very carefully in a sufficiently large diameter and loosen them individually from the ground, in order to then lift the entire root ball out of the ground, usually everything goes well and the plant can be brought to its new location and planted there immediately. Here, however, the planting hole should be large enough so that the newly inserted, very fine roots do not break when you insert them.
If you have to transplant a larger plant, you should first take a very close look at the treetop. Their diameter roughly indicates where the roots could end up in the ground - so you should consider the crown diameter as the diameter for root excavation. If you enlarge it slightly, hardly any roots are accidentally damaged. Now it's time to uncover the roots that are close to the trunk, i.e. carefully dig them out. At best with your hands, a broom or similar things that cannot damage the roots - this is how you work your way outwards to the finer roots. If all root lengths can be easily removed from the soil and are no longer covered by heavy soil, the likelihood of the fine roots breaking is kept as low as possible. Now the root ball can be lifted up and out of the ground with helping hands. Here, too, care must be taken when planting to dig a sufficiently large hole and carefully place the fine roots in it. If the dug up plant is exposed to air for a long period of time, you should at least regularly moisten the fine roots with a spray bottle and water.
Damage to theAvoid plant
There are moments when you're sure you can't completely prevent damage to some fine roots - for example, when the plant is already very firmly rooted and has grown large. In this case, however, precautions can be taken to limit damage to the plant.
In this way, the newer shoots are cut back and old shoots and branches are also slightly shortened before the roots are dug up - this brings the ratio of green parts to be supplied to the roots of the plant back into balance. The removed shoots no longer have to be cared for, so that the plant can cope better if the corresponding fine roots have been damaged - if they are preserved, new shoots and leaves quickly appear on the plant, so that it soon regains its original appearance.
| Measures to preserve fine roots | What to avoid |
|---|---|
| Dig up at a sufficient distance from the plant stem | Choose a diameter that is too narrow for the excavation - this will cut through the roots |
| cut back newer shoots before digging up larger plants | Dig out the root ball immediately after digging without removing the soil parts |
| work your way forward bit by bit, ideally from the trunk outwards | |
| Removing roots from heavy soil | |
| Keep the roots moist if you stay outside the ground for a long time, for example with a damp cloth |
Admittedly, it's not always easy to get most of the fine roots when a plant is to be transplanted in the garden - but if you know how to help yourself and take a lot of time for the task, it should not be difficult to save most roots from major and severe damage.