Beancounter, you said "square pots are twice as efficient as round pots for root growth and space, " WHY do you say so? I am curious... By the way, I happen to use square buckets.
Hey Bear's Dad
let me guess, yer usin' the big 7ish gallon cat litter containers (the most cmmon and easiest way to find big square buckets), if so, you must grow some TREES.. i've done 8 footers with 50 tops in those with room 2 spare (soilwise).
ok, i wish i could conjur up some old posts/threads but those sites r dead, as I'll probly ramble on a lil' more.
honestly, i think they are probably even more efficient than i said..
i'm sure everyone here has seen a rootbound or slightly rootbound plants in a round pot.. As all will agree it's quite obvious (and natural) that the roots gro down, hit the side of the pot, and grow in a circular pattern around the bottom. now, if you were to rinse/shake all the soil away you would start to see what i'm talking about. you will be left with a ring of roots around the bottom and the soil will come off quite easily, now in an ideal world you want to USE all you soil (have roots thru out all* of you mix), especially considering the expense of some of the soil/peat mixes. most peeps i kno who r stubborn or resistant to change waste tons of premium mix every year when they could reuse 75%+ of it when using round pots, anything you can shake off you can reuse..
with square pots the roots gro down aswell, that's nature, but* when they hit the bottom they may gro around until they hit the first corner but that's where the difference starts, when the roots hit that corner, rather than growing round and round the bottom, they will either terminate (like topping a plant, all the side branches (or feeder roots in our discussion) will take the extra energy and gro into full size roots which then send out some of their own feeder roots and the process starts all over again).
Now, the sharper the angles of the square pot the more efficient they get, with very sharp (almost 90degree angles all around) angled square pots the roots will usually either bounce right back up into your mix as soon as they hit the bottom corner, or terminate imediately, now remember, topping a root is just like topping a plant, you get more feeder roots like you get more branches, and again the cylce just continues..
I hope this makes sense to everyone, but when i pull my well vegged plants out of a square pot, and i try to shake away the soil/medium I usually cant, because the roots are like attoms bouncing around in your soil until all* of your medium is held tight and FULL of roots.. so that's why i say that square pots are WAY more efficient than round, cause i've seen it all unfold 1000s of times in front of my eyes, and so have others.
I've pulled 2.5'-3' bushy, perfectly green, healthy, multi top plants out of 3" or 4" square pots where you can not even see the soil/medium, just a block of white and you'd have to be super strong to rip the rootball in half (you could probly hold the stem and beat someone unconsious with the rootballs, lol), seriously tho, if the same plant was in a round container of the same displacement I could only grow the plant (keeping it 100% healthy) to about 1.5' and it probly wouldn't be as bushy..
Another trick for transplanting rootbound plants that i'm sure some of you know is to literally take an old serrated knife and make 4 (or 2, or 3, depending on how brave you are and it's your 1st time) vertical cuts into the corners/sides of your root ball. this recreates the whole termination method, and believe me it won't even stunt the plant (in my experience) and it'll increase your root mass in your next pot.
Don't be afraid to break/cut roots once a plant is well established, it will not hurt it, only help, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION..
If you have any more specific questions feel free to pm me and ask.
Sorry for hijackin yer thread. I hope yer unknown planty wears panties :)