I agree, tapla. Nature beats nurture, AGAIN, 12-0

I concur with Al... I do believe that many plants which become root bound bloom because they're in distress. In simple terms... with nowhere else to spread out healthy roots, the plant does what nature intended and blooms in order to procreate, or create seed, with the singular instinct of survival being the catalyst, I guess one might say.

Plants don't like or prefer to be pot bound in order to bloom, as the old wive's tale would indicate... or for any other reason. Instead, plants will bloom when all their needs are met optimally... when light, temperature, moisture, drainage, nutrition, age, and other needs or conditions are correct for the plant in question.

I once had a common Hoya in an 8" hanging basket, and at the time I had little knowledge about the subject of growing plants to their full potential. I was happily amazed when it bloomed... but found out upon re-potting it that the roots were so bound up and wound around inside the pot that the poor thing was choking itself to death!

Thanks to this forum and the patience of people like Al (Tapla) and others, I now know that container grown plants require a different tact than those grown in the ground, and that many fallacies still abound within the realm of gardening. For many people, growing plants isn't that important. But I've collected and been gifted many plants that I really don't want to lose, so I when I did have trouble with a few bulbs, I did some in depth homework so I could properly maintain them... and it payed off in spades! :-)

May I recommend reading: CONTAINER SOILS - WATER MOVEMENT and RETENTION XXII

I would have to disagree to a point. I'm not in favor of root bound plants, but I am a fan of stressing some of my well established plants by giving them a bit of a shake when walking by, or withholding water to the point of a slight droop from time to time.

In the long run it makes the plant as a whole stronger, and promotes stronger flowering.

Rob

I love ya, brother, and tried hard to come up with a physiological reason that would support what you said. Closest I could come was the fact that flexing a plant or lightly abrading stems and branches stimulates lignin production, which stiffens plants, but that's as close as I can come. Under drought stress, plants have a tendency to abort blooms and leaves, and slow/stop growth, all of which would tend to go in the limitation column, no matter from what perspective the influences are viewed. Shaking a plant also breaks fine roots, which might not be the end of the world, but I think it would have to go in the limitation column as well. Thoughts?

Al

Drought (and cold) stress causes citrus to bloom although I don't know if it causes existing blooms to drop.

Vlad

Explain how that works, please, Vlad?

Al

Here is the most recent article I know of:

http://www.arccjournals.com/uploads/articles/ar211001.pdf

Al - I don't have time right now (I'm taking a break from cleaning my flood tray), but I'll explain in detail why I believe certain stresses are good for a plant. You practice some of them on your Bonsai all the time. However, sticking to OT, being root bound is rarely a good thing.

Rob

Imagine you've planted two plant's of the same species in pots. You grow one in a greenhouse, and one outside. Even though there's ventilation in the greenhouse (air exchange) there's really no breeze, so that plant is pretty much static. Meanwhile, the plant outside is dealing w/ a breeze, even wind. With just that difference, which plant do you think would be a stronger specimen?

Easier example - One plant with a fan blowing on it, the other w/o.

Growing Bonsai is all about stressing the plant. Wiring, and pruning are very similar to the Japanese binding their children's feet, or ancient Egyptians binding their skulls. You're forcing the tree to bow to your demands through physical stresses.

I first read about certain stressing techniques, and then applied them hand's on, and found positive results. But like I said, I don't stress all of my plants, just the ones I think will benefit.

If you give a plant a little shake now & then; and some small roots break, what's the difference between that and "Air Pruning"? A few roots die? More in number grow in their place. If you bend a branch over downward, previously vertical Internodes; are now horizontal increasing new, and more vertical growth from those dormant buds.

There's only one person on this planet that has taught me as much, or possibly even more than "tapla" (Al), and that's saying a lot. Keeping in mind, that Al literally saved me at least 10 years of research on my own. They both played a big role, just in different fields of growing. (No pun intended.)

Rob