roots squeezed between slats

[miakaye]

One of my phals has a few root tips growing through the slats and I'm afraid to try and push them back inside. Any suggestions?

[Ray]

Don’t!

They did not “squeeze” through. As the root grew, adding cells at the growth tip, it stayed narrow while going through the slot, then got fatter again. Leave it alone.

[Roberta]

I agree with Ray. Leave those roots alone, they are doing fine. If you try to do anything you will damage them. When the time comes that you want to repot the plant, you can save these "escaped" roots by VERY carefully cutting the pot along the slits, so that you can get them out through a larger hole. (Always better to destroy a pot than destroy a root) But they are doing very well, let them do what they will do.

[Mountaineer370]

I use the same kind of pots and learned a long time ago that roots will grow through those slots, and there's not much to be done about it without causing damage.

I have very occasionally been successful at redirecting a root back inside the pot by pressing in the plastic on one side of the slot to make a larger opening and gently pushing the tip of the root back inside, but only when the tip of the root is very, very short. Still, another root will grow through, and another, and so on.

So I gave up trying to contain them and just let them do what they want. When it's time to repot, I cut the pot to get the plant and roots out with the least amount of damage. I, too, would rather sacrifice a plastic pot than risk damaging precious roots.