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I have a plastic, rectangular planter with a variety of plants. I recently added a new plant to an empty spot, and found that the region was already thick with root fibers from the other plants in the planter, and starting to cluster thickly around the edges.

I saw the question about pruning rootbound plants, and don't want my planter to end up like that. But, since this is a planter, i can't just pull out the whole thing and prune the roots. How do I keep the roots of my plants from becoming overgrown and fighting with each other in a planter?

Community
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Jonathan
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1 Answers1

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There are at least two approaches to solving this.

  1. Completely remove the portion of soil where the new plant will go cutting all roots and replace with new plant + soil.

  2. Add "dividers" to your planter to compartmentalize the growing areas of your plants. This can be something solid like wood or flexible like weed-block

Neither of these solve the fundamental problem. Your other plants are growing and sending out their roots, if you reduce their root space you are restricting their growth. Plants want to grow. If you want them all to grow bigger you will need a bigger planter or to supplement for reduced root size with more nutrients. If you want all of the plants to stay similar in size restricting their root size will restrict their growth.

Shinyosan
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