Store bought plants, roots in foam...

[schoeplein]

Most of the larger plants I'm seeing have their roots encased in a foam material which is placed in a small plastic "vented pot".

Is it safe to plant these plants with the foam intact, or should it be removed along with the plastic pot? Or can the whole thing be planted as is?

Air/ground based plants I always remove everything from the plant before putting it in the ground (including the dirt holding onto the roots that it was originally planted in). I'm just curious if the rules are more or less the same, or if the foam is beneficial or only used as a means to easily translocate a plant without ripping up its roots.

Thanks!

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[Brookster123]

You should remove all this packing material carefully, the roots tend to be attached sometimes.. You can trim the roots down to 2" for planting if needed..

 

[prinzlerr]

I take anything that's not the actual plant and discard it. As Brookster said, just be patient when removing it, so you don't damage the root system.

 

[lectraplayer]

That's what I would do--carefully unpack it into a bucket of water and then plant.

Also, where can I get those pots for when I need to be able to reposition the plants?

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[schoeplein]

These things? eBay. I have a local shop that specializes in water based plants and sells them for less than $0.25 a piece.

Is there any long term harm to leave any of the stuff in tact? I'm assuming the plastic pot will restrict root growth slightly, and the foam may eventually rot and/or harvest not so beneficial bacteria?

 

[lectraplayer]

I've not known the
foam to grow "bad" bacteria. It would just be more substrate to be colonised by bb. I would pull the foam and put something more substantial.

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