Container gardening (roots)

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS DISCUSSION IS REQUESTED.
I am not primarily a container gardener but I have observed that what ever the size of the pot the feeding roots thick or thin are always in space between the soil and walls of the pot as shown below;





How is it and why is it so?
Arif

[Muhammad Bilal]

Interested questions. I really wana to know why so dense roots system despite of getting enough water and feeds.
Is it not their naturally root system??

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Interested questions. I really wana to know why so dense roots system despite of getting enough water and feeds.
Is it not their naturally root system??

What you want to know is not clear please elaborate.

[M Farooq]

Very nice observation. I guess this phenomenon is known as "root bound" systems.
This picture explains little bit about it. If we look at the general rooting habits in the picture, we will see that eventually more roots will be found along the edge rather than the bulk.
http://ufei.calpoly.edu/tree_standards.lasso

image015.gif (21.28 KiB) Viewed 4186 times

[Izhar]

I think this has a very simple explanation... the roots always tend to grow away from the point they originate and in the pot they are stopped by the walls hence they grow along the wall rather than growing backward...

[Mustansir Billah]

In my view plants firstly develops roots at the corner of the pot just to catch water from the every in the pot and than forms a structure at the surface of the pot. This the growing habit of roots of the plants in pots.

[newton]

Very interesting article Farooq sab with some advice to trim such roots before transplanting into open soils and I've never really understood the reasonings to do that before.

I guess there are some feeder roots and some anchoring roots with each plant having differing growth patterns, essentially like the shoots and leaves growth patterns, except in a pot they are limited. Aquarium fish are also reputed to self limit growth in line with the size of the tank, i.e larger tank larger fish, smaller tank smaller fish.

[M Farooq]

Ifzal sb, I guess the reason for trimming circular roots is avoid circular growth pattern of roots when transplanted into the ground. It can potentially become the case of a snake biting its own tail.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

I think this has a very simple explanation... the roots always tend to grow away from the point they originate and in the pot they are stopped by the walls hence they grow along the wall rather than growing backward...

Picture one, roots in front appear to have spread out from bottom and climb up along the wall, even in the second picture the main root in front has branches going up, horizontally and down .
Why is it advised to keep increasing the size of the pot rather than starting it in a large pot?
What is stagnant soil of the pot?

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

The subject is behaviour of roots in a pot where they are contained in a limited space, have no competition and can get desired food and water.
On the back of my mind is selection of a proper pot for a plant, commensurate with its requirement and root system.