Hi Mark, the roots in 7 out of 9 of those pots were bound and rotting when I got them from the nursery. How bound up varied from plant to plant, but nearly all had a good amount of brown, dead root matter. I actually did as you described with several of the plants and cut the pot down the sides, but honestly I found that it was hard not to slice through some of the roots in doing this with my box cutter, and it was surprisingly difficult to actually extricate the plant in this manner, so I came to the conclusion that for these root bound plants it was just easier to pull them out cleanly from the pot as a unit. I've gotten different opinions on whether it's best to shred and remove the dead root matter at planting or go to any length not to disturb the roots. On my initial plant, I left the roots totally untouched, but then when I re-potted, I noticed there was a kind of boundary delimited by the original pot outline and the 2-3" of expansion "soil." It seemed the good roots were mostly trapped inside the dead. I only saw a few good roots growing out in a downward direction. So I decided to rip-up and remove the dead roots there. I'm sure some healthy roots suffered with that move. I'm still hoping they can recover. I'm looking for the day when these plants start to draw on the water held by the soil, and I can actually begin to water them again and add that so important mulch layer back. I've planted avocados in the past and didn't have any of these types of issues, but I think the combo of less than healthy plants and perhaps too much peat and cocohull in my grow medium has led to my issues this time round. I'll keep at it, and try to remember these setbacks for next time.
I can't imaging I'd ever spend $75 on five avocados here in California. Better to take a SouthWest flight down south and gather 50 at $2 a piece. It is worth noting that they have a deal now and have reduced the price by half. I sliced open the second Reed from WF yesterday. It was slightly better, but still not a great specimen. It's like they picked it early but the fruit is actually starting to go bad from age. I'll look forward to trying a better example in the future. Where have you been posting (or have you) the progress on all your avocado grafting there in the greenhouse?