Chapter 10

ROOTS AND

CONTAINERS

Roots serve plants in several ways.
They hold the plant in position and they are
its primary means of obtaining water and
nutrients. The size and efficiency of the root
system has a great effect upon the
development of the plant and ultimately,
upon its yield.
The amount of space that the roots
have to grow depends on the cubic space
of the container and the size of the particles
in the growing medium. Roots growing
around large sized particles obviously have
less room than roots growing through small
sized particles.
The size of the container is determined
by the final size that the gardener intends
for the plants. When plants are grown to the
same size in different size containers the
plant grown in the larger container is lusher,