I grew 30 varieties of peppers and 5 varieties of tomatoes from seed this year. Our Minnesota Spring arrived really late, so the plants stayed in red solo cups a bit too long and became rootbound (circling in the cup).

When I transplanted, I just watered enough to wet the ball and then gently pulled apart and dropped in my buckets. The plants are all doing well, although I'm sure they growing slower than if they could have just spread the roots more naturally.

My plants are probably 12 to 18 inches above the planting surface. However, you can find people on here who have planted from seed just a month earlier than me and their plants are 4 feet tall with heavy blooms. Granted they are in Southern U.S., but shows the importance of not letting plants sit rootbound for extended periods of time.

I always scratch my balls. ;)

Seriously though. I always scratch the root balls. For SEVERELY rootbound plants, they also get an "X" on the bottom and 3-4 scores on the sides with a razor knife.

Kevin

I suppose it depends on how severe the issue is. Most times the roots can poke out some little feelers and continue on their path. If the problem is REALLY severe they will just continue to grow in circles and inward - creating a huge mess. The majority of the time the plants will follow the first option - but just to be safe I tease my (root) balls just a smidgen before showing them to their new digs :)

Jay

Ah, scratching and teasing balls. ROFL! I thought I was on a different forum!

Lol, you folks made me spit up my coffee laughing!

I usually soak the root ball in fish fert solution for about 5-10min before transplanting, so that makes it easier to loosen up the ball and open up the roots. Though I've learned with roots the less you fiddle with them the better off they tend to be.

Yep, I didn't even catch the joke until a it was pointed out. hahaha.

Anyway, if my plants are not root bound bad, I simply transplant. If they are root bound bad, then I will try to break up the root ball carefully and then transplant. If they are severe, then scoring the root ball is probably the better option as Woohooman suggests.
Bruce

Last year was my first. When I pulled some plants at the end of season, I discovered that the worst performers still had a solo cup formed root ball, with some roots in an outer layer. This horrible discovery informed my process this year.

I transplant when the soil is thoroughly dry, and I "massage" the root ball (more puns!), and shake the plant, shedding as much soil as possible. I then end up with a nice and loose heart shaped root system, which I spread out when transplanting. I even rip off some ends of the roots if necessary. This has worked excellently for me so far, both in taking in some overwinterers last fall, and also when potting up throughout the spring this year. Peppers are sturdy plants, they can take a little beating ;)