Problem with roots?

GinaRothfels

In late February I started rooting some Ficus cuttings in water. They soon grew roots and I potted them together in one (transparent) pot as I plan to fuse them into one trunk. Everything has looked fine since. I briefly had them outdoors, but, as we are heading into winter I brought them inside a couple of weeks ago.

Today I noticed that some of the roots seem to be turning a light brown, though the leaves still look healthy. Am I doing something wrong, and if so what do I do to
a) put it right
b) prevent this happening with other plants?
I am reluctant to remove them from the pot now that the weather is getting cold.

I think I have seen bits of brown on the roots of other plants when I have repotted them and have never had any trouble with these, so I don't know whether this is a serious question or just unnecessary panicking.

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waltr

The exposed roots on my ficus do turn a light brown color that matches the trunk. Is this what you are seeing?

GinaRothfels

ficusfanatic

are there white roots as well? or are they all brown? could be rot if too wet, but if the growing tips/feeder root are white, dont worry about it too much. what's the transparency and fusion correlation?

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-chris-

GinaRothfels

There is some white left in the roots. Despite the fact that the plants are only a few weeks old, with about nine plants growing into each other and the roots getting quite long, it's difficult to work out what's tips and what is growing back inwards.

I don't really understand the last question.

Joanie

You might want to cover the pot with foil or something, since roots are photophobic... they don't like light. The brown is probably just the roots beginning to 'lignify', in other words, turn woody. This is natural as roots get older.

Joanie

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GinaRothfels

At one of the presentations at our club we were told about starting cuttings in bottles - the tops would keep humidity in, while the bottoms would allow one to see when roots start to develop. I thought it would be quite useful to watch their progress for the first few months, which is why I have used bottle bases for cuttings that were started in water. Is this going to do the roots harm over a few months? Does the light condition affect this - some of them are in lighter positions than others? If so, I guess I will have to cover them. At least this way I will be able to check on them from time to time without disturbing the roots. Next summer I will probably put some of them in colanders and they will certainly have to go into bigger pots than they are currently growing in.

Thanks.

ficusfanatic

sorry i thought that 1- you saying you wanted to fuse them, and 2-they were in a transparent pot- in the same sentence implied some correlation.

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-chris-