Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

"Planet X" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

1) Break the pot :-(
2) Take a large sharp knife and cut straight down from the rim through the
root ball and lift the tube of root out :-(

or

3) What we did in the same circumstances. Raise to pot up off the ground and
lay it on its side, rim slightly pointing down. Get the garden hose and wash
out all of the soil. Long job as the roots have to be teased to allow the
soil in the bottom to drop 'down' to the rim and drop out. Lift out root
mass and plant in prepared hole. Spread roots out as you fill the hole,
carefully treading and firming as you go.

Shock horror from the 'experts' maybe, but a case of 'Been there, done
that, got the plant and saved the pot'

Mike


--
.................................................. .........
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

3) What we did in the same circumstances. Raise to pot up off the ground
and

Raise 'the' pot
.........

don't know what happened there :-((

Mike

--
.................................................. ........
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

"Planet X" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

I would suggest soaking the pot / compost so that it becomes flexible -
planting anything vigorous / long lived in a pot which has a pinched rim is
always going to come to this - if the pot isn't precious, then no problem,
but it may break in the process of trying to remove bamboo. Depending on how
long it has been in there, it may be tightly confined. Good luck :-) Let us
know how you get on, as I need to do similar with a purple elder which has
outgrown a glam blue glazed pot.!

Chris S

"'Mike'" wrote in message
...
"Planet X" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

3) What we did in the same circumstances. Raise to pot up off the ground
and lay it on its side, rim slightly pointing down. Get the garden hose
and wash out all of the soil.

Brilliant - now why didn't I think that when I had a similar problem!
Jenny

"Chris S" wrote in message
...

"Planet X" wrote in message
...
Hi,


I would suggest soaking the pot / compost so that it becomes flexible -
planting anything vigorous / long lived in a pot which has a pinched rim
is always going to come to this - if the pot isn't precious, then no
problem, but it may break in the process of trying to remove bamboo.
Depending on how long it has been in there, it may be tightly confined.
Good luck :-) Let us know how you get on, as I need to do similar with a
purple elder which has outgrown a glam blue glazed pot.!


Try saying the last 8 words of the above quickly before ye've had yer
weetabix.

Des (mid breakfast)

Chris S

On 4/2/07 10:23, in article , "Chris S"
wrote:


"Planet X" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

I would suggest soaking the pot / compost so that it becomes flexible -
planting anything vigorous / long lived in a pot which has a pinched rim is
always going to come to this - if the pot isn't precious, then no problem,
but it may break in the process of trying to remove bamboo. Depending on how
long it has been in there, it may be tightly confined. Good luck :-) Let us
know how you get on, as I need to do similar with a purple elder which has
outgrown a glam blue glazed pot.!

We made the mistake of planting Euryops in Ali Baba pots four or five years
ago. There isn't a prayer of getting them out! Just recently, a high wind
knocked one of them over and the pot broke, displaying the most incredible
mat of roots in the perfect shape of the pot's interior. Nothing would have
extricated those - literally nothing. I think that Rupert wrote that he had
once managed to free a root bound plant from a large pot using a pressure
washer, so it might be worth trying that but the plant and pot's survival
will always be in question.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...

We made the mistake of planting Euryops in Ali Baba pots four or five
years
ago. There isn't a prayer of getting them out! Just recently, a high
wind
knocked one of them over and the pot broke, displaying the most incredible
mat of roots in the perfect shape of the pot's interior. Nothing would
have
extricated those - literally nothing. I think that Rupert wrote that he
had
once managed to free a root bound plant from a large pot using a pressure
washer, so it might be worth trying that but the plant and pot's survival
will always be in question.
--
Sacha


Pity you didn't read my posting first. You might have learnt something.


Mike


--
.................................................. .........
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

On Sun, 4 Feb 2007 09:17:47 -0000, "'Mike'" wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions. Much appreciated. We've had a hard frost
overnight which has remained all day. So I'll try cutting it out when
we get a spell of mild weather. I'll let you know how I get on.



2) Take a large sharp knife and cut straight down from the rim through the
root ball and lift the tube of root out :-(

or

3) What we did in the same circumstances. Raise to pot up off the ground and
lay it on its side, rim slightly pointing down. Get the garden hose and wash
out all of the soil. Long job as the roots have to be teased to allow the
soil in the bottom to drop 'down' to the rim and drop out. Lift out root
mass and plant in prepared hole. Spread roots out as you fill the hole,
carefully treading and firming as you go.

Shock horror from the 'experts' maybe, but a case of 'Been there, done
that, got the plant and saved the pot'

Mike

"Planet X" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

You could use the pressure washer method,as referred to by Sacha, but unless
you are talking about a true dwarf bamboo then the rhizomous roots will have
totally filled the pot. You may be able to cut a few of the roots with bolt
croppers or an angle grinder -if you are very lucky:-)

Planet X wrote:
Hi,

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

Thank you

BTDTGTTS!

smash the pot, use the bits as crocke in futre more sensibly shaped pots!

PK

"Planet X" wrote in message

I've got a dwarf bamboo that has totally filled a 15" decorative
pot.
I want to remove it from the pot and plant it in the garden. Of
course, nothing is that easy; the pot has a pinched in rim!!

Has anyone any useful tips that will enable me to extract the
rootball
without cracking the pot? The pot has quite a large 'mouth' and it
has reasonably thick walls.

It'sa right pig of a job!

I've done it in younger and stronger days by putting the pot in it's
side and shaking some of the dirt out and then using a bread knife to
hack into the roots so that I could finally get them past the rim. I
have found that bread knives (the big ones for cutting unsliced bread)
are particularly useful for cutting roots.