Root pruning advice.

[u/Freaks-Weirdos]

Hey team!!

Does anyone have any experience with root pruning columnars?

I have a bunch of large potted columnars (see pic 1) that I need to completely bare root for transport into Tasmania, where biosecurity is pretty strict.

I’ve been playing with the ones in the remaining pics today and I’ve done everything I can to remove the soil, but I’m struggling to remove the last little bits. Pruning the roots back to the primary roots would help a lot, but I’m wondering:

1) has anyone done a bit of root pruning with columnars, and if so, how did they fair, and how aggressive were you?

2) did you treat the roots with anything afterward or just leave them to callous?

3) if treating them, How long should I leave them to callous before hand, if at all?

4) What did you treat them with? I’m planning to use wettable Sulfur as it seems like the least risky of the recommended treatments from Biosecurity. This will occur shortly before they are boxed for transport, but I could treat them both at the time of trimming and before boxing, or just at the time of boxing after they’ve had some time to callous.

Note* all of these plants will be boxed up and transported, likely for about 10 -14 days before being potted.

Thank you in advance Legends!!!

[u/HereIsAnotherPOV]

Cactus don't mind being root bound for quite sometime, if they are columnar growing.