Roots Are Hoots

I want to say something about roots. I used to think they were boring (What? You do as well?), just that part of a plant best buried underground. It took me years to discover I was wrong. Now I consider them so important that if I had my way I would have them on show and bury the leaves and flowers (No I wouldn't).

But seriously, if we wish to become better growers, we need to think more about growing these than we do about anything else; we need to learn how to grow them big and strong.

Has this thought ever occurred to you? No, it hadn't to me either. I was always more concerned with things above ground. Yet it's so obvious. Roots are the the plant's foundation.

I never really got beyond considering the foundation as a good anchorage in the soil. Yes, I knew that roots also provided food and water for the growth process, but the penny never dropped, not really.

Then one day it hit me that the bigger the root system, the more food and water the plant can receive; consequently it can grow bigger, stronger and faster. This was a Eureka moment. It changed my whole growing philosophy.

The number of times I had dug up a failing plant to examine its roots (this is the first thing you should do when you encounter trouble). Yet it never dawned on me that growing was about growing these roots - not leaves, stems and flowers.

I don't mean that these are unimportant. Far from it. But when I dug up my best plants at the end of the season, they always had the biggest and strongest root systems. If we can grow roots, everything else seems to follow. Or if we look at it another way, when was the last time you found a strong root system on a sickly plant? Never, I'll wager.