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Bury the stem

Bio boy

Active member
Heyho I am reporting my trees and bloody difficult to add soil at the base there sat on perlite now but I wanted to add more soil , so like when repotting I plant half way up the stem , am I cool to do that ? I want to add 3inch more to the top of the soil it’s all roots so doing that will help the surface but I will have to plant half way up the stem now I do this on a repot but if feels strange on a tree

some plants I know if you bury the crown they get rot but this is cannabis which roots allover lol like a giant cutting they root ? So I can’t see problems but best check first lol

i wanna fill the soil level up to top
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Bio boy

Active member
It's ok to bury the stem as long as there is enough space left between the soil and the first node. You should allow space for air circulation to prevent damp and mold. Branches,buds,leaves should not touch the soil or be too close to it in order to prevent splashing them when watering.Nice bushes !
Yeah all trimmed up the first arms are above soil
 

Ca++

Well-known member
People have offered reasons not to, but personally I have done it as a matter of course. The disagreement revolves around the possibility of fungus getting into the stem and transported through the plant. Myself, I work with cuttings. So generation after generation, I'm sticking open wounds into the ground. So a bit of dirt on the side of my stem seems of little relevance. As you expect, roots will pop out where the stem is covered.
 

Bio boy

Active member
People have offered reasons not to, but personally I have done it as a matter of course. The disagreement revolves around the possibility of fungus getting into the stem and transported through the plant. Myself, I work with cuttings. So generation after generation, I'm sticking open wounds into the ground. So a bit of dirt on the side of my stem seems of little relevance. As you expect, roots will pop out where the stem is covered.
Yeah my taught exactly you can take a cutting ball on an arm plastic wrap and it roots then cut it off while in veg they have hormones making them root there allover I even rooted a leaf once o the side of the proper gator that fell off

So I can't see an issue and I use fungal inboculants so really hope for infections would be high anyway I guess lol
 

Beaucephus

Active member
I always buried seedlings stems a bit to keep from falling over. I watched a video where a guy used cuttings of tomato plants and the one he didn’t bury any deeper yielded more. Buried did have considerably more roots but not near the yield. Wasn’t the most scientific study so take it any way u want.
 

DcSantos

Active member
I always buried seedlings stems a bit to keep from falling over. I watched a video where a guy used cuttings of tomato plants and the one he didn’t bury any deeper yielded more. Buried did have considerably more roots but not near the yield. Wasn’t the most scientific study so take it any way u want.
I always bury the stem when repotting . It's not about yield. I do it to anchor it better in the new pot as well. many of my seedlings end up stretching a bit too much. next time won't happen again as will give them more light but will still bury the stem a bit deeper. I usually like to bury it right where first node is .
 

Creeperpark

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
Its ok to bury herbaceous stems deep like tomato plants, however woody stems can have problems when buried in the soil too deep. If you put a couple of inches of potting soil on top of the surface roots the plant can't get oxygen or dry properly. Plants buried too deep will almost always get mold or root rot.

What is herbaceous stems.
Herbaceous plants lack lignin and other features of woody plants. They are softer than woody plants and rely mainly on cellulose, which is not as strong as lignin, for structural support. Google

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Creeperpark

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
Even google knows not to plant too deep, here's what they say.

All plants have surface-level roots that are responsible for taking up water and nutrients for the rest of the plant; if the root ball is planted too deep, these roots can suffocate or rot. This causes the plant to decline rapidly. Google
 

Bio boy

Active member
Yeah. I dig it that you want a more productive plant. Not sure this is the way to go, tho'. I 'm with Mr Creeperpark (oh, and Mr Google).
I wouldn't do this if yr in a humid or cool place.
Well there not so deep like and fabric pots mean I like that google the base is exposed to air hehe
so guess she is fine to fill as I have done already it’s regulations the soil moisture and stopped it drying out

Gonna pour root fungi down her stem anyways
 

Chuck Jägerschnitzel

Active member
I've done that myself in the past without ever suffering any negative consequences. Saw plenty of root growth out the parts of stems which had previously been above ground. One time a million years ago I had a guerilla plant next to a stream that got about 1' deep of flood debris deposited on it by mother nature and it didn't seem to mind at all.
 

Creeperpark

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
I've done that myself in the past without ever suffering any negative consequences. Saw plenty of root growth out the parts of stems which had previously been above ground. One time a million years ago I had a guerilla plant next to a stream that got about 1' deep of flood debris deposited on it by mother nature and it didn't seem to mind at all.
The horticulture term is called "telephone polling". Because the plants wood stem looks like a telephone pole coming out of the ground. When you plant any plant too deep in the soil it can cause problems. Any wood stem plant.
 

Chuck Jägerschnitzel

Active member
The horticulture term is called "telephone polling". Because the plants wood stem looks like a telephone pole coming out of the ground. When you plant any plant too deep in the soil it can cause problems. Any wood stem plant.

That bottom part of the stem that shows the little white proto-root node dots on it looks like it wants to to be buried so it can root out. Whenever I've gotten stem rot on a plant, it seems like its always happened higher up on the stem, on the parts that can be hollow.
 

Creeperpark

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
Stolons, sometimes also called runners, are slender, elongated horizontal stems that grow above ground. Stolons are classified as either procumbent or repentant. Repent stolons grow roots at nodes on the stem that are in contact with soil, while procumbent stolons do not. Cannabis stems have procumbent stolons. If they were repentant they would continue to grow searching for the soil. Planting any horticulture plant too deep in a container or in the ground is not in the best interest of the plant. You can do it Chuck but it's not in the best interest of the plant.
 

experienced

Active member
Stolons, sometimes also called runners, are slender, elongated horizontal stems that grow above ground. Stolons are classified as either procumbent or repentant. Repent stolons grow roots at nodes on the stem that are in contact with soil, while procumbent stolons do not. Cannabis stems have procumbent stolons. If they were repentant they would continue to grow searching for the soil. Planting any horticulture plant too deep in a container or in the ground is not in the best interest of the plant. You can do it Chuck but it's not in the best interest of the plant.
Seems to me that pouring anti fungus down the stem is not ideal either. For me, the closest to Nature is the way to go. Pouring stuff onto plants so that they do, or don't do this or that, shows the grower is not in tune or at pace with natural ways.

Like ... doing stuff like that is plain INSENSITIVE. The plant needs to be grown. Not driven or pushed or tamed as if it is something foreign or hostile.

Don't be hostile to Nature. Let things be. Go with the flow ... (you might as well. Because you're part of that flow ... )

Earth grows people, y'know? So pass it on ...
 

Chuck Jägerschnitzel

Active member
Stolons, sometimes also called runners, are slender, elongated horizontal stems that grow above ground. Stolons are classified as either procumbent or repentant. Repent stolons grow roots at nodes on the stem that are in contact with soil, while procumbent stolons do not. Cannabis stems have procumbent stolons. If they were repentant they would continue to grow searching for the soil. Planting any horticulture plant too deep in a container or in the ground is not in the best interest of the plant. You can do it Chuck but it's not in the best interest of the plant.

Thanks, thats great info and advice, but I just don't mind mistreating my plants, if a plant is some kind of bitchy primadona then I hope it dies, I don't want to have to pamper it. I want rugged workhorse plants that can do most of the work themselves without needing too much assistance. I figure if I neglect and abuse the plants long enough eventually maybe I'll have some really tenacious genetics which can go out into the wilderness and survive on their own, maybe even cause an infestation as severe as something like the Hunter River infestation that was eradicated in the 1960s
 
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