How to separate rootbound pregnant onion ???

I have had these pregnant onions for years and now they are soo rootbound that I dont know how to separate them without putting them into shock ...The rootball is a huge mass of roots..

Any suggestions ?

Just unpot them, rip them apart and repot the separate sections. It sounds brutal, I know, but it is unlikely that these plants will go into any kind of lasting shock. They are too rock hardy.

Cheers,
Ispahan

I, too, am very brutal with them. They don't care. Just be careful about breaking the actual bulb. If you can't get them apart by taking the whole thing out of the pot and banging the roots/dirt against something solid, get a serrated knife and cut back the roots and then pull them apart. After that I leave them laying out for about a week so that the roots callous off, then plant them. Here in California I have them in the ground, so you can imagine what THOSE roots look like!

This message was edited Jul 11, 2005 7:36 PM

Thanks guys... I got these from a guy who was closing his antique shop on an indian reservation on the washington coast... and I DO agree about how rugged they are.. I bring them in for the winter here in the seattle area... I hardly water them, they shrivle and look almost dead then I bring them outside in the spring and they bounce back with amazing speed..... I think they like having that dry period..

Ill put this on my project list...

Chris

They can be watered year-round. Since mine are in the ground I have the opposite watering situation - watered in the fall-winter when we get rain, then only periodically spring-summer when I think about it. If I water year-round they get REALLY big - 6 ft. leaves!

i have few not grown any i don't see, how long to get big and bloom. what should i do .. small very small. thanks.. blessings all.

twyla

This is such a freak plant for me in that I think aside from putting it in a furnace .. It is darn near unkillable...

I did notice that when i put mine outside in a spot that got just a few hours of full sun ...for the summer .. it really took off ... Maybe that will help .. if you are growing it as a house plant

Chris

Yeah, they're a lot like Sansevieria that way. You can't kill them with a baseball bat. LOL You're right though - they do better when in partial shade.

Oh, dear, I must be REALLY bad because I DID kill mine! lol Not intentional, I promise!!
Don't know what happened...I think I watered them too much and they mushed out.

You KILLED a Sansevieria? Shame on you! LOL :>)

But seriously, too much water is probably exactly what happened. They don't like being wet for very long. I think that's why they also like being potbound - then they can't get too much water at once. If you try it again, make sure the plant is in a really fast-draining soil mix.

Bad me!

Thanks pekasky!

Y

You're welcome!

Marilyn(or anyone!), can you plant the bulbils in C and S mix? I received some today and want to know the best time of soil to root them in. I also have Pro-Mix and Perlite.

Thanks,
GH