BARE-ROOTING YOUR PLANTS

 

Are you preparing a plant in your garden to donate to a plant sale, give to a friend, or move to a different location of your yard? Bare-rooting your plants is a safe process to insure healthy transplants. 

 

Bare-rooting plants means cleaning roots to remove all soil to protect against jumping worms, pests or invasives that may have contaminated the plant or container.  Fortunately, it’s a fairly easy process!  

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Once you’ve bare-rooted your plant, always keep the roots moist (wrap in damp newspaper or paper towels, or let it rest in a bucket of clean water). Do not put your plants in direct sun; try to plant or pot them immediately but no later than within 24 hours.

 

VIDEO: HOW TO BARE ROOT YOUR PLANTS:

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https://youtu.be/7O-pH7Umbbo  1:58 (7/7/2021) by University of Minnesota Extension 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A23hBgC77dc  7:22 (7/7/2021) by University of Minnesota Extension 

 

BUCKET METHOD: Rinsing plants using the two bucket method.  

1. Dig up the plant.  

2. Remove excess soil - gently shake the plant or tap the roots against ground.  

3. Wash/ swish roots in a bucket the first bucket of water - tease roots further apart with hands and complete the process by washing the remaining soil in the 2nd bucket. 

4. Dump water back into the garden.  

5. Rinse buckets, tools, gardening gloves/hands 

6. Sanitize tools and buckets with disinfecting spray or solution. 

HOSE METHOD: Alternatively, use a hose to remove soil from roots.   

1. Dig up the plant.   

2. Remove excess soil - gently shake the plant or tap the roots against ground. 

3. Use a garden hose to spray-wash the plant over the garden bed (soil falls back into the bed).  

4. Spray the rest of the plant - ensuring the entire plant is soil & pest-free.  

5. OPTIONAL:  Finish washing roots in a bucket of water - swish, tease roots further apart with hands to finish loosening/removing soil.  Dump water back into the garden.  

6. Sanitize tools and bucket with disinfecting spray or solution.

NOTE on SANITIZING TOOLS: 
Ensure used garden tools are disinfected with a disinfectant spray/ solution. Some possible suggestions are a Lysol spray, a 1:10 bleach solution (1 part bleach, 10 parts water), or isopropyl. 

PURCHASING PLANTS?

1. Loosen as much soil from the plant's root system as possible into a trash bag.   

2. Rinse the roots in the first bucket of water to remove as much soil as possible.   

3. Finish cleaning the roots in the second bucket. Be sure to remove all remaining soil. Plant the new plants in the best appropriate location of the garden for success. (right plant, right place) 

4. Combine the dirty water into one bucket.  

5. Let the dirty water settle.  

6. Dispose of the liquid by pouring it down the drain. 

7. Strain the solids (spread a t-shirt across the empty bucket, strain muddy dirt onto the shirt).  

8. Dispose of the strained dirt and shirt/strainer into the same bag you put the loose dirt into, in step 1. 

9. Tie the trash bag closed and discard into the trash.   

10. Sanitize tools and buckets with disinfecting spray or solution. 

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