Should I dig it out?
Question:Some of my plants are not growing tall (e.g. Avacado, Areca Palms). Should I dig them out and move to a deeper hole? Will it help if I just add more soil on top without moving them?
Answers:
You can kill a plant quite easily by planting them too deep, hence NO don't add more soil and NO don't put them into a deeper hole..unless you plant them at their proper depth and let the roots go deeper. Sounds good, but roots actually go OUT more than they go down in most plants. So if you want to dig holes, dig WIDE.
You need to know why the plants aren't growing well. Could be the plants naturally grow wide (the Areca), could be you have lost the central terminal bud that allows plants to grow up, not out, could be the plants grow wide when young and gradually develop the height, could be the roots are failing due to soil problems: soggy soil, compact soil, whatever.
You need to do some exploration and examine your expectations. Maybe you have the wrong plants if you want height.
SOME PLANTS ARE JUST SLOW GROWERS, GIVE IT SOME TIME
No! don't go through the hassle. Try loosening the soil and letting the roots breathe more. Soak heavily with low to moderate flow to really get the water down deep to the lower roots. Work a really high quality fertilizer in the ground. There are some good Avocado formulas, but try using Miracle Grow - it is really the best and you can use it frequently during the growth season. And don't forget to trim off suckers and small growth from the bottom of the trees, this encourages higher growth. I have done this, it works! You should see new sprouts in a several days.
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