Do short roots matter?

I was out planting my iris that I got at the end of last week and got most planted. Wasn't that many really and I have only four more left. I would have gotten those four done too if it wasn't for the fact that it started raining.

So any iris I had ever planted some had really long roots but most that had there roots cut were still afew inches. I was wondering is it matters as in the iris aren't going to grow well, if the roots are really short. Like 3/4 of an inch to an inch long. It did make it difficult to get the iris firmly anchored into the ground as there was not much to work with on the anchoring. I put some wooden plant label sticks in back of them to suppost them.

I hestitate to say anything after my compaints on the other Sutton thread about other things but these are the iris I got from Suttons.

Shorter roots cut down shipping weight, but I prefer longer than an inch. Then there were returned seedlings from convention this yr which had extremely short roots. They rhizomes themselves were happy & some were increasing. However I think the very short roots will harm growth and we are in a drought, & not allowed to do heavy watering.

Rain is supposed to be on the way, but when & see the returns drying when planted next to the green older plants in spite of lack of water, I worry about the survival of the returns.

It was very hard to anchor the iris when the roots are that short. This is the first time I have had to try and plant with so little roots to work with. Its raining now so my new plants at least are getting watered in good.

So should I water them more because of the short roots? Thanks.

Rita, George Sutton told me when I first started growing iris that the current roots don't matter, as the rhizome will put out all new roots. And some growers cut all the roots off down to the poor little naked rhizome before shipping. I agree it's much harder to anchor them properly, but in just a few weeks they will have rooted and be fine. You're probably smart to help anchor them for now with the sticks.

When I do full plant back in the commercial area, I cut my roots as short as I can because all the roots you see are just an anchor as they all DIE and all new ones form. Try putting a brick, bigger rock anything to hold for 4 weeks and you will see they take excellent roots. I like it better because so often the roots that form a mat for me can cause rot.

D

Thanks, it's good to know that those roots are not going to be needed and will soon be replaced anyway. Which I didn't know. I just hope growers realize that its too hard to anchor them without some decent roots. Also its perception. I feel like a plant should come with decent roots. I am sure I am not the only one thinking that way.

Believe it or not back (I think that the time frame is correct) in the 40-50's that almost all growers shipped with little or no root at all and the foliage was cut down to about 3-4" tall and they grew.

Now I have send wholesale overseas orders with NO root and little or no foliage for two reasons one when you are shipping 1000's at time it saves alot of money and they plant like we do in commercial fields, fast and faster as we have many to plant in about 4-6 weeks...think what it would be like to plant 224 acres of iris if you had to worry about the roots. Now saying this we plant with them in the ground about 1" once rooted we uncover. So much faster and easier.

Again saying this I like to receive most of my iris with nice roots but it is not necessary unless they are beardless.

Hope this helps.

D

I can't imagine planting comercially. I am sure things would need to be done differently or one could never manage. But I am just a home gardener planting some new iris in my garden. So its no big deal to me to dig the hole so I have plenty of room for roots.

Just thought it would be nice to know that the iris will do wonderful even without much or any roots.

D

The trouble this yr is that no roots can't anchor in very dry soil. The can't grow without water (like now). & they need moisture to start to grow. Last yr's plants have moisture so stay green, as the root take up the moisture to feed the rhizome. No rain=no moisture so the plants dry up.

One of the standard practices for me is to cut the leaves down to about 2 inches on my irises if they have been out of the soil for more than a week. #1 they are usually in the process of dying so they cannot function as providing energy. #2 tall leaves act as a sail in the wind and is the major cause of rhizomes blowing over if there is not a good root system to anchor them. #3 they always turn brown or yellow and gradually fall over and become an incubator for rot or disease. All the growth is in the center of the base of the fan anyway so the leaves are not important to the survival of the plant.

Freshly dug and replanted rhizomes are a different story. 4 or 5 inches of fresh roots and 8 inches of green leaves will begin producing new growth within a few days. I think that is why rhizomes purchased from a major grower who digs and ships almost the same day perform much better than the crispy critters from Lowe's and Wal-Mart.

In agreement with all you wise women I have learned so much from........

I lost several nice iris this year because of the awful heat and drought, some I had tried to establish last fall in remote areas that don't get a lot of help. The summers here are not usually quite as bad as this one.


Dee, got the seedlings trimmed of roots, potted up and labled for planting in the fall.....Weather is calling for a cold front starting Wednesday, not supposed to be over mid-nineties, what a relief. The mornings will be 65 to 80s, I can get soooooo much done, I"ll show that crabgrass who's boss here.

Pic of a historic dug and planted yesterday. Treated and dried for about 3 hours and replanted. Most of the roots left intact or trimmed to about 6 inches. Leaves trimmed to about 6 or 8 inches. For me, the ideal way to transplant them since they begin to grow within just a few days.

4 irises each in 2 4x4 plots giving them about 2 feet separation. That should give them adequate ventilation and sunlight. My most common mistake has been to plant them too closely causing conditions for diseases.

Great picture of the roots. That is the way they should be, which does add to shipping costs, but better for the plants here. Trouble is shipments to the EU can't do that anymore since they changed the iris plant classification there. However shipping within the US should be able to send non bald plants.

Lucy you can ship to the EU I have all year. Just more forms. Only ones having trouble are France and Russia.

Shipped to German, Austria, Netherlands, Italy and Canada

D

I had been told that it was state by state regulations. Here I know that you have to remove all roots & green leaves. Makes it tough for the plants to grow again. Canada is different as we found out when trying to get the convention plants there.

We had an invasion of turkeys (which happens quite often) looking for a place for dust baths. They picked the open space next to the planting of seedlings returned from the AIS convention. I had been annoyed to see that the roots had been cut off.; more than annoying yesterday an 7 out of 18 plants were flung out of the ground since they didn't have the longer roots to anchor them. The older plants on the other side of the 'dusting spot' were fine as they were firmly anchored.

DH shooed the turkeys out of the garden, difficult since they all wanted to go different directions & replanted the iris. It does hold them back from anchoring into the ground.

Question Lucy, when you plant seedlings, mine only have roots maybe 1 or 2" long how does that work.

Another reason when I do plant back that I trim most of the roots of is avoid air pockets in planting

D

I prefer 2" but it is better than 'bald'. The roots are trimmed as to what works in your garden. If I am moving batches of seedlings the roots can be perhaps shorter, but I trim longer if moving individual plants. I have never worried about air pockets, but you say you have sandy soil.

I have trouble with the ground in the winter thawing and heaving then freezing and over and over. I decided this year to try to hold the new iris in, I would take wire cut it pretty long make a horseshoe shape out of it and push it down over the iris rhizone and see if that holds it in the ground. Any thoughts on my idea?

In New England we have rocks for that job. Interesting idea for a 'no rock' area.

I have used old wire coat hangers cut in the U shape to do just that. And it does work!