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Plant Propagation

Division - ornamental grass

17 years ago

I aopologize... I think I originally posted this message in the wrong forum. Anyway, I would appreciate anyone's feedback. Thanks!

I have read that all you need to do is divide the roots up of an ornamental grass plant and burry just the roots. Is this true? if so, how big should those sections of root be? Is there any special care I should be taking?

For example - if I have a root mass that is 6" in diameter with one clump of grass growing in the center - Can I cut the root mass in half and burry just the root mass? or do I also need to cut the clump of grass in half too? Can it be cut into 4 plants? Or is it not big enough to divide yet?

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Comments (4)

cody_mi
17 years ago
i'm not entirely clear on what you mean by the root mass.
to divide an ornamental you'll need shovels, pitchforks, sawzall or some sort of saw and a strong back. dig up your grass or at least dig around the sides so you can get to it. saw it into sections, from the crown down through the roots. the divisions really depend on how big you want them. the smaller they are the longer they take to get big enough to make any sort of impact. usually when i divide i leave the clumps about 6-8 inches around. personally with yours i would wait another year to divide it, but it could be divided in half at this point. what kind of grass is it?
timsburgh
Original Author
16 years ago
It is pink pampas and very young. The root mass is only about 6" wide. Should I plant and wait till next year?
cody_mi
16 years ago
you could divide it now, but you'll end up setting it back. i would plant it now and then maybe in two years divide it.
timsburgh
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you for the advice cody!

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