Soaking the pot is good. Poking lots of holes (20 to 30 lots) in it b4 planting is good. Taking off any part that is above the soil level is imperative. If you don't do that the rim serves as a wick to wick the moisture out of the root zone.

Kathy

I have had lots of experience with these so-called biodegradable pots, and suggest you remove the rose, rootball and all from the pot before planting. It takes forever for those darned pots to breakdown. They are not all they are cracked up to be, so if you keep your planted roses in them, be prepared for a long breakdown period. I've even had some that took a couple of years to disappear.

Please listen to Roseman.
We used some of these pots long ago, and we found out that, once they are under ground, they do NOT break down. We dug some roses after THREE years, and the pots were still pretty much intact.

If you do not remove the roses, I suggest that at the VERY least, you take a box cutter, and slash the things all over. Slash in an "X" configuration, for maximum weakening of the pot.

But removing them is best, just as Roseman says.

Jeri

Hearing from experienced rosarians like Jeri and Roseman - I am convinced. My next question is this: these are freshly potted roses, potted 3 weeks ago. I am working hard to get all my roses in the ground - would I be injuring the feeder roots now if I move - should I just carefully slide the rose into the prepared hole and being as how its still winter here, they would grow new feeder roots? The roses are just barely putting out tiny leaves, not really growing at all yet. 3 weeks ago, Houston was having 19 degrees, it was still chilly there yesterday.
Thanks!
Judith

Same question, different answer each time it is asked. Hmmm.

Kstrong, yes, because we all have different experiences. Some people leave the pots, some soak the pots and slice the sides to allow the roots to grow through and some remove the pots. The recent thread with a similar question is linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: bareroot planting question- never seen this before

I ended up soaking the whole thing for a few days, then carefully tried to remove the rootball from the pot, but I ended up with bareroot, there's nothing holding it together, no feeder roots at all. I discarded the biodegradable pot and potted the bareroot as I'd normally do.

I vote to take the paper pot off. I have posted the following experiment before: My mother and I did an experiment with these Paper pulp pots one year and I have posted it here many times. We purchased 2 Oyster Pearl Hybird tea roses in the paper pots. Took them home, dug our holes next to each other so we could keep track of both roses they were planted exactly the same way. Planted rose #1 in the paper pot after we soaked it in water and poked holes, then we planted rose #2 with out the paper pot. As the weeks went on we kept track of the growing process. The rose in the paper pot which was rose #1 did not leaf out as quickly as the rose without the paper pot which was rose #2. Rose #2 without the paper pot grew out very nicely and quickly but, rose #1 with the paper pot on took a considerable amount of time to put out any leaves. We had leaves on rose #2 approximatly 2 weeks before rose #1 and rose #2 looked healther to me. We eventuly dug up rose #1 that was in the paper pot and took off the paper pot and replanted it. It leafed out so well it was like the roots were saying "Thank god I can breath and move" So after that experiment me and my mother did I am totally convinced that planting the roses without this paper pot is really the corrct way to plant a rose that comes in these paper pulp pots. I just don't see any benefit to planting a rose in a paper pot!
Carrie

I abhor those pots & wish the nursery industry would abandon their use altogether. They simply don't breakdown rapidly enough for good root development. Roots, rather than growing thru them, tend to grow in a circular fashion until you end up with a tangled mass/mess that's virtually identical to a plant being pot-bound in a plastic container.

There seems to be a common misconception that we should disturb the root systems of new plants as little as possible. Roots are resilient (at least rose roots are). When I purchase potted roses I make it a point of disturbing the root systems at planting time. It's a good thing, as Martha might say.