Eventually they'll get so root bound they'll start pushing the plant up above the rim of your pot, so you will eventually need to prune the roots. I suspect that root congestion in semi-hydro wouldn't be as limiting as it is in a solid medium because the entire volume of the container is available for root colonization - not just the interparticular air spaces. One goal of root pruning plants in a solid medium is to remove the larger roots, which serve only as organs of transport. This leaves room for fine roots, the work horses, to grow. It's not unusual for a bonsai practitioner to start with a plant in a 3 gallon pot and reduce the root mass so the plant fits in a much smaller pot - say a half gallon size. Here is an example of how extreme a root pruning of a healthy plant CAN be: Another, a ficus: I have a LOT of experience repotting woody plants - I've done many thousands of them. For me, I can look at the volume of foliage and instinctively know how much root mass it will take to support the top mass. I take into account where the plant will be sited. If I really do a severe root reduction, the plant will be sited in open or dappled shade out of the wind (my houseplants are all outdoors at repotting time). For ficus, it's usually pretty safe to remove 1/2 of the root mass w/o having to prune the top back. If you remove 2/3 of the root mass, the plant might shed branches it can't support, so it's better if YOU selectively remove some of the foliage to prevent the plant from shedding branches that might be important to the plant's eye appeal. If the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, it's already too late to pot up and expect to receive the same benefits you would from a repot. Growth and vitality begin to be impacted at about that pivotal point. I wasn't clear on whether you were asking the recent questions about conventional container culture or semi-hydro. My reply was centered on conventional growing. Initially, I missed the part about this plant being grown in water - sorry. Al

I trim the roots to about 5 to 6 inches making sure to pull off any roots that are dead or appear hopelessly dried. Some might leave all the live roots and I suppose you could but it's difficult to position them all properly in the pot and surround them with soil. Easier to just chop them off and let them grow new roots. This is of course just my opinion and what I do so, others may have a different view. Late last summer I pulled dozens of bulbs up from the ground and whiskey barrels and let them dry with all their roots attached. When I went to repot them a few days ago I found that about 6 or so had severely overgrown basal plates that had been hidden by the mass of roots so, I had to chop off at least 1" of basal plate on most of them. And, in doing so, removed all the roots on these bulbs. Not what I wanted to do but as it was necessary, this was certainly the time to do it. I'll let them dry for about 10 days more and then repot them. I'm sure you won't have this problem though with just a couple of bulbs... Donna This post was edited by dondeldux on Thu, Dec 13, 12 at 13:41

BTW, I've pretty much destroyed nice plants by adhering too closely to such method ===>>> no tom.. you did all you could do to TRY to save them ... they were already destroyed.. by the time you got them .. its the optimist/pessimist conundrum ... dont you think?? when looking to buy one gal stock of any type of plant .. i was never adverse to tipping them out .. into my hand.. at the store.. and summarily refusing to buy the worst, especially in regard to roots .. EVEN IF I HAD TO WALK AWAY from a plant that had long been on my TO DIE FOR LIST ... [note the word die in there.. lol] ... the roots are really.. more important than the plant above.. so you should be shopping the root mass.. given the opportunity ... my concern with the one above ... second pic .. had i tipped it out.. would be the lack of white root tips ... but i usually shopped in spring.. when the roots were freshly growing .... i cant say i ever shopped conifers this time of year .... so perhaps the lack of white tips is OK... anyone???? ken

I'm only answering because no one else has yet; I'm no expert on planting in-ground. All mine overwinter indoors in pots, in sunny areas and lightly watered. It won't hurt, especially if they're still dormant, to prune off any roots that are small and look dead or unhealthy. They'll grow those small feeder roots right back and most will benefit from the root-pruning. I would think if they were stored bare-rooted you could probably soak them for a few hours in rainwater (or at least tap water that's been sitting for several hours to gas off some of the chlorine and come up to room temperature) with a few drops of SuperThrive in it, and then plant them right away into amended garden soil in your garden, then drench with your leftover soaking water. (If you don't already have it, SuperThrive is a wonderful supplement for all your plants, and especially transplants.) Your other option is to "plunge": soak, then plant in a good-quality perlite-rich potting soil in a plastic pot and bury the pot up to the rim in it's garden spot. That way you have better control over the quality of the soil, keep some pests away from the root ball, keep the plant's roots at a stable ground temperature (clearly your plants were happy last year in the ground), and still be able to easily pull it up when you're ready to store. Those are just my best ideas based on how we transplant bare-rooted plants that have been shipped to us. Good luck! Jen