That paperish stuff is commonly used to ship plants, but usually for dry root
ones.
My guess is that these pieces are soaked with water at the shipper with the
thought
that they will help retain moisture in shipment.

Although these degradable containers are supposed to dissolve over time, I try
to
remove them whenever possible. Even with larger plants, you can maneuver the
plant into destination hole and then carefully cut the sides and slip the whole
thing
away from the plant. At worst, you will lose a little soil, but it will give
the roots an
easier time to reach out into their new surroundings.

Sherwin

Persephone wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:21:08 -0600, Pennyaline
wrote:

Persephone wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:18:41 -0700, wrote:

Hello, I have plants in what looks like recycled paper or cardboard,
possibly degradable containers.

What are these made of and should I remove these before planting?
My local nursery sells bare root roses in winter in those containers.
They say to plant in containers and they will degrade.

I don't plant the containers. I remove plants from containers and
plant normally. IMHO, the container gimmick is for lazy, trendy
gardeners.

Actually, it isn't. It is a method to prevent damage to the roots of
tender plants. It also makes it easier to handle and plant very small
plants and seedlings. There's nothing new about these containers. My
grandmother made them out of paper, and they've been made from peat for
use in seed starting for quite a long time.



When I remove container, I do it over large newspaper, because
there's a ton of spaghetti-looking paper-ish stuff around the root.

That's odd. You're finding this in standard degradable peat containers?

You're talking, above, about damage to "very small plants and
seedlings". Maybe a failure to communicate? I was talking about
large, robust plants like bare-root roses (see above). They are,
in fact, full of "spaghetti-looking paper-ish stuff".

I can see why little containers might help with "tender plants',
so I guess we were looking at different sizes & types.

Pax

Persephone