I had that happen with a plant in a hanging basket which did not have much depth.

PI 439414

Perhaps too shallow watering?

Wow, look at those roots.

Could be both problems you mentioned. Maybe time for repotting.

I always thought it came from high humidity at the soil level. the stem being in high humidity it sprouts roots.

I had some peppers in pots with roots above ground or at the surface. the plants continue to grow just fine.

I kind of had the idea that if the soil is too wet then the roots do not get enough oxygen so it puts out roots at the surface where the roots get all the oxygen they can use. It also seems to me that a huge root system in a small pot just can not get enough oxygen from the roots. When the plant is grown in the ground it might be several feet wide by several feet deep and thus get oxygen from a huge volume of soil. But constrained to a tiny pot the roots can get bigger but there really is not more oxygen to be found by the roots.

Ive had that happen a couple times over the years.

One time I think it was the potting soil I used had sand in it,after being watered a couple months the sand sank down and made a rock hard layer that the roots couldn't get through.
I changed the soil and put the plant deeper when I repotted and the plant was fine after that.

Another time I was using just planter mix(composted forest products)-nothing added.
Close to the middle of summer my plants started growing roots on the surface.
I repotted to find that the planter mix had separated into about 3 sections.
The top 2/3rds was like compost.
Then there was a layer of basically sludge-broken down stuff that was like the bottom of a stagnant lake.
Then there was a 2 inch layer of dirt that seemed to seal in the water to keep the layer of sludge from draining water out of the pot.
I repotted to a mix of cactus mix and planter mix with more pearlite added with bark chunks and peat.I put wicks that seem to help drain the excess water in the containers too.

I think in both cases that the roots weren't able to grow past a certain point so they grew up.
I use 15 gal. containers and keep most plants as long as they will grow.
One I have now is 4 yrs. old.

I've seen small plants that are still in seed starter soil that do that if you leave them in the starter tray too long.
I think the starter mix has no nutrients for the plant.
It's designed to hold moisture to sprout seeds that are not yet taking much out of the soil yet.
When they get too big they send out roots to find food.
I've seen roots comming out almost up to the bottom leaf at times.

When my container were messed up the plants looked great and my water meter allways said the moisture and PH was fine.
The bottom of the pot where it was messed up was past where the meters probe could reach so I thaught the containers were draining right etc.
I'm sure the plant would have started to die if I let them go without digging them up to see what was going on with the soil.

Smokemaster, thanks for your great reply.

So, I took 4 of my seedlings out of their pots and examined them. I'm just using medium chunky potting soil and it is uniform from the top to the bottom of the pot. Root development is very good, mainly in the lower 2/3 of the pot.

So, I can't quite see what's going on. Anyway, they'll all be put into the final containers and go outside in another 2 weeks, and since they all look very healthy, I think I'll be ok.

It is weird though, that roots should grow like that. I'd have thought that they'd stay away from light.

I guess they are just spreading their legs.
Doesn't sound like you have any problems with the soil.
You must have good drainage if the roots are pretty much all through the soil.

It might not be worth the risk but you might try mixing up a very weak spray bottle of fish emultion and lightly mist just the airborn roots for one day.
Fish emultion is mostly nitrogen.
Just try and mist the roots,not the soil in case you are overdosing the plant.You don't want it also in the soil so the plant still gets the nutrient after you stop misting the roots.

See if your plant does anything possitively-turn into Pepperzilla.

If there is no change in a couple days try a weak solution of seaweed extract.It has everything except a lot of nitrogen.
If you really wanted to get into it you could try the different nutrients by themselves.
Epsom salts,Dolomite lime etc.

See if your soil mix/Plant might need some nutrient.
Use the roots that are out of the soil as your direct feed avenue to the plant.
Go really lite with the mixture though,you might screw the plant up real fast if you put too much of what it allready has plenty of...

If,as suggested above, your plant wants oxygen try some dilluted hydrogen peroxide on the airborn roots.

2 weeks isn't much time to really test the above out.You would want to wait a couple days between sprayings to let the plant react.

It would be interesting to check out if after you repot they do the same thing with the roots.

Then you could experiment if you wanted to.
I'd just mess with 1 plant though.
Start with maybe the trace minerals first.I don't think it would be as easy to kill a plant with them.

If nothing else you'd see what the different nutrients do to the plant,unless it dies on the first spray.

Now I'm wanting one of my plant backup/extras to do that so I can play with it without risking a plant I want to keep.
See what your making me do?
It's not a good thing to make me start thinking about anything.
I start wondering "What If".LOL
Then my head hurts.

I'm already trying to graft several different pepper plants to my habanero tree to see if I can make a Salsa Tree.
I want a bunch of Chinense peppers on one plant.
Red,orange,peach,white habaneros,Paper lanterns,chocolate habaneros,red and yellow mushrooms all on one plant.
My Habanero Arbol is 6ft. high and growing.It was 8ft.+ till I pruned it a couple months ago.It's around 4 yrs. old.
I'm also trying to get cuttings to grow from it too.

I gotta stop getting these ideas.LOL
Then I get more ideas while researching the original idea,It's never ending.
I need a homebrew beer.