Tim, I suppose that could have happened, I am familiar with root tropism in pots. They were planted in 2015 when we had plenty of rain, we are in a temperate rain forrest according to the Nat. Weather Serv. Last summer we had an unpresedented drought, I have been here over 20 years and never seen it so dry. We usually get up to 60 inches of rain and we were about 35 inches short, I think that we only got about 25" all season. To many people in other places that seems like a lot but when you are used to a lot of rain, the plants are used to it and have adapted to it. However we can't grow good geraniums because of to much moisture an humidity and other dry climate plants. I am going to bareroot some of them and plant them in some very loose soil and see what happens, our soil is predomantly clay here. I will make sure they don't get dried out. If I do it now they will have to have some protection as we can get frost any time in April. Will see what happens, I would really like to have them in my garden. On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 12:22 PM, Tim Eck <teck11@embarqmail.com> wrote: > I believe the potting soil drying is not due to drying per se, but rather a > root tropism designed to deal with rocks. > Since all potting soils are very loose, many native soils can appear to be > rocks in comparison (especially clays). The root growth then tries to > avoid > the rock and ends up circling the hole without breaking into the native > soil. In pots, this is called 'spin' because the roots circle the > perimeter > of the pot. Out in the ground, this will not show as a problem in rainy > weather but after a couple of weeks without rain, the roots absorb all the > moisture in the potting soil and then the plant dehydrates and dies. > > > > > I got your recent message, maybe it was the potting soil drying, I'll try > that. I > > plant most other things with potting soil and have not had a problem as > far as > > I know. > > Should I wait until they are fully up or bareroot them now and plant > them. > > They are up about 1 - 1 1/2 inches right now but in a cold frame. Perhaps > I > > should bareroot them, plant them and protect them from frost if we get > it. > > That seems like the better approach. > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >