I Have Discovered a Problem (part 5)
The last couple of day I have been moving roses. Digging holes in the beautiful earth, putting some upside down turf in the bottom of the hole and backfilling with the beautiful earth, leaf mold, about half a cup of the delicious mix, a cup of alfalfa pellets and an ice cream bucket of the transplanting solution. NOW they should be happy.
After moving a few roses I suddenly realized something. None of the roots had root hairs! Are rose roots different? Do they not need the tiny roots? Or could this be why I do not have nice lush rose bushes?? Could the roots die and that is why roses seemed to go downhill the year after I planted them?
International Herald Tribune was a rose that very happily lived all last summer in its pot. It bloomed like crazy. I popped it out of its pot and into the ground for the winter. When I dug it up to move it there were zillions of lovely little white root hairs! Shouldn’t the others have some too?
Next research mission – why don’t the roses have root hairs? Hmm, seems that can be a problem if the drainage isn’t good. How could I not have good drainage? Its gravel underneath. Wait a minute, I remember hitting an area that had something like hardpan when I was digging the trench. So I went to that area, dug down to the gravel and poured a bucket of water in it. In about an hour it was gone. My research indicated that bad drainage was when it stayed for many hours. Ok, can’t blame bad drainage.
Could my upside down turf be causing slow drainage? Can’t believe that. Its just a single layer.
So its back to researching.
After moving a few roses I suddenly realized something. None of the roots had root hairs! Are rose roots different? Do they not need the tiny roots? Or could this be why I do not have nice lush rose bushes?? Could the roots die and that is why roses seemed to go downhill the year after I planted them?
International Herald Tribune was a rose that very happily lived all last summer in its pot. It bloomed like crazy. I popped it out of its pot and into the ground for the winter. When I dug it up to move it there were zillions of lovely little white root hairs! Shouldn’t the others have some too?
Next research mission – why don’t the roses have root hairs? Hmm, seems that can be a problem if the drainage isn’t good. How could I not have good drainage? Its gravel underneath. Wait a minute, I remember hitting an area that had something like hardpan when I was digging the trench. So I went to that area, dug down to the gravel and poured a bucket of water in it. In about an hour it was gone. My research indicated that bad drainage was when it stayed for many hours. Ok, can’t blame bad drainage.
Could my upside down turf be causing slow drainage? Can’t believe that. Its just a single layer.
So its back to researching.
posted by Muriel at 8:28 a.m.
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