Hello everybody, So, the begining of last summer I purchased a Neanthe bella or "Parlor Palm". Well, I planted it into a little pot and a few months ago, I transplanted it into a 12" pot, which, was obviously too big for it...Well today I was digging it up and I was surprised to find that it actually has a very deep root system, to the very bottom of the pot! I had a very hard time digging it up as I did not want to hurt the root system, but I couldnt take it out in a whole becuase it was too big of a pot for a little plant. I think I may have accidentally chopped off some roots if not all the roots, and there is an extra long root hanging. I was just wondering if its a problem that I cut off some roots and what I should do with the extra long one. All help would be appreciated. Here is a picture:
The long root is a 'tap' root, and it's ok to cut it, but better to do so in stages, over a couple of years. Otherwise it looks like you really chopped or tore off a lot of roots, unless the plant normally doesn't grow many. Tap roots can sometimes just have most of the roots growing from them, so you'll need to cut half of it off and wait for new ones to grow from the rest of the plant base. You'll just have to wait and see if it all survives. Get a lot of small grit into the new mix for fast drainage and don't water very often at all, til a fair amount of the mix is dry.
