TOPIC: Stunted Growth on Rootlets

Hoping someone who has planted any 3 year old rootlets before will help me with this. Only about 10% of the rootlets I received came up this year. I planted them immediately after getting them. Took three days and I kept them in my cool basement between planting times. Out of the 10%, only about 10% of them look \"normal\". By \"normal\", I mean, they have the height and width of a typical three or four prong. The rest of them are about three or four inches high and wide, yet have three or four prongs and overall look like the real thing but miniaturized.

Questions are:

1. Is it normal for first year of rootlet's plants to be stunted?

2. Is it from the bud being damaged by being too dry (even though they weren't dry in appearance)that has caused the lack of sprouting and stuntedness?

3. Will the ones that didn't come up, come up next year?

4. Has anyone had rootlets wait a year to come up?

5. Has anyone had stunted rootlets, and if so did they come up normal the next year?

jimsenger66,
It should never be normal for rootlets to be stunted, however they may be smaller because they were a little behind in growth coming from the beds. Not all will be the same. If only 10% came up then you have some bad stock. They were either stored improperly or they have disease in them. You will probably not have any more to come up next year. There should never be such a thing as stunted rootlets. They have been mishandled or improperly grown if they are. If these plants came from Wildgrown I would ask for replacements or my money back. If they came from somewhere else, I believe you can just write it off as a loss. Sorry about the bad luck. I'm kind of used to it now.

Hugh

Hugh,
Thank you very much for a quick and clear response. They do look very sad. It was a pretty hefty chunk of change for 10 lbs. of the rootlets so I reckon I should take pics near a dollar or some sort of size comparing tool to have as proof of the distorted/stunted growth of the rootlets and maybe some pics of the seedlings to clear the air of suspicion of the soil. I will also get an exact count of how many came up. Their seeds are very praiseworthy but as for the rootlets, well, I won't be trying that ever again. That is unless they would rather make it right with replacements this fall! I will let you know how they respond to my request for at least a partial refund or replacement. Heck, I have hundreds of dollars in fencing in the majority of where I planted these rootlets for seed protection as I wan't to breed selectively without predators ruining my work.

Jim

I've seen this same sort of thing occasionally. This is one of the years I'm seeing it. When the weather starts warm and then chills again, its not uncommon to see some of the plants that are coming up get sort of 'stuck' for lack of a better word. I've some here now that were very nice big wild roots, but the three and four prong tops are only about 3 inches tall at the moment. Sometimes they stretch out and sometimes they don't.

I really think that has more to do with the conditions when they are coming up than anything. In normal years I've seen some break ground in the morning and be half open by evening, and fully open the next day. Then again, I've seen the crooks come up and just seem to stop when a cool snap comes around, staying there crooked over for days.

I planted 3 pounds of 3 year old rootlets from a notable well-established dealer, when I first got started. The results were mixed, only had about 70% to come up. Planted them in good places, and in two different locations.

I have a deer problem. one of the patches i planted was very near and adjoining a major deer trail. I should not have planted them there, and deer browsing cleaned them our every year. the othe patch was smaller, and these did not come up at all.

this winter, when manicuring the patches, I fenced off the major deer trail area so that it was impassable to the four-footed suckers. What a surprise that this spring, and since the deer do not come thru this place anymore, that my original rootlets were above ground! almost all of them survived after having had their tops eaten.

Grower - 1; deer - 0!

Stunted above ground growth can also be due to soil imbalances, however you do not mention what your soils analysis is there where you have these planted.

I think I would have to contact the place you bought these from and discuss the problem.

Brad: That's good to hear and it sure makes a lot of sense. So, do you think the ones that didn't come up at all this year do so the following year?

Whitjr: So awesome you are now one up on the four-legged terrorists. That's great to know that nipped tops will still come up later. So far so good here. There is a wide array of herbs and undergrowth in my woods so I may be alright on the ones I don't have fenced in. Plenty to choose from other than my seng. Hard to tell how thin it will get once and if dry weather gets here. Last year the undergrowth never even wilted as we had a steady rainfall all summer.

I will get a count this weekend of exactly how many did come up. I guess if it's normal to have the stuntedness from the cold snap(s) after the seng sprouted then I won't concern myself with their little itty bittyness!

Jim

That's pretty hard to say at this point. But, unless they diseased up, its a good possibility.

jimsenger66 wrote:

Questions are:

1. Is it normal for first year of rootlet's plants to be stunted?

2. Is it from the bud being damaged by being too dry (even though they weren't dry in appearance)that has caused the lack of sprouting and stuntedness?

3. Will the ones that didn't come up, come up next year?

4. Has anyone had rootlets wait a year to come up?

5. Has anyone had stunted rootlets, and if so did they come up normal the next year?

Stunting may be the result of improper chemical applications that have resulted in a chemical injury to the plant at some point in its life example...too much fungicides or pesticides it can also be caused by nutrient excess or deficiency, did you get any history of the chemicals,fertilizers,pesticides,fungicides,if any used to grow the plants, that's what is called transparency in the industry.

K_duce:
Well, they were fieldgrown so they probably were swimming in chems. I just took that as a given. Won't get any on my watch! Being they were dormant when dug by grower and dormant up til a few weeks ago, how could they take up any nutrients? I thought the rootlets used what they stored up throughout their lifetime and would gain more nutrients after they come out of dormancy after the transplant.

You answered your own question, the nutrient imbalance did not occur on your site,if that's the case, but where it was grown initally. You can rule out weather as the culprit , it may make the leaves pucker or deform and in some cases even kill the plant but stunting is not a result of cool,cold,frost,freezing,snow,or artic vortex.