Use Air-Pruning to Stop Your Cannabis Plants Roots

[vc_row 0=””][vc_column][vc_column_text 0=””]There is a simple hack in order to avoid irregular growths and root suffocation. These issues are most commonly caused by an all too familiar issue with gardening which are root-bound plants. If you’re not familiar with it yet, root-bound plants are plants that have grown too big for their pots or containers. This usually happens when you are growing indoors and are using small pots or growing containers. If you want to avoid this issue from happening to you at all, you have to make sure that your pots are already pretty spacious to start with so that your marijuana plants will not experience this at all.

The issue with root-bound plants

If you have young marijuana plants that you have just potted on small pots, you have to avoid getting them root-bound at all costs before even transplanting them. Why? That is because a plant’s roots that have already started to wrap around its container because it has no more space for more roots will find it very hard to break free from this giant tangle of roots once you finally transplant them to bigger pots.
Aside from the plants having trouble breaking free from the tangle of roots that have gone around the pot itself, the growth of your marijuana plants will also be constricted. This could lead to several problems ranging from just a slowed down growth rate to killing your plant in the long run.

Air-pruning
Air-pruning, as the name suggests is basically exposing your roots a little bit to air. It is just exposing the edge to your pot to air so that the whole rooting system is not confined to the insides of the pot. This way, air will do the pruning of roots so that they don’t go around the inside of the container. This will eventually form a branching of roots that will be a better setup for optimum nutrient absorption.

What to use
In order to avoid any root-binding at all, you could opt to use different growing containers aside from regular pots. You could choose to use a growbag. Other people find it more convenient to just purchase special growing pots that have holes in them where the roots could get out and stretch of their own accord without being confined.
If you don’t find that any of these two options work for you, you could do a DIY instead. You could make your own growbags from excess fabric you have lying around by cutting small holes into them so your roots will be exposed to air and they will have room to grow and stretch. Also, if you have some unused crates or growing baskets, these work well with preventing root binding as well.

Oxygen exposure
Roots normally grow underground or covered by growing medium, therefore it is understandable that they do not do well with excess exposure to oxygen and light. By employing air pruning, your plants’ roots will be confined in the center and will eventually grow downwards instead of around the growing container itself. This is what a healthy root structure looks like and promotes optimum absorption of nutrients for the best growth possible.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]