root bound
Cramped in pot
Root bound describes a plant whose roots have outgrown their container, coiling densely against the walls with nowhere left to expand.
A root-bound plant may wilt despite watering, its growth stunted until transplanted to a larger pot.
The condition also applies figuratively to people or institutions too constrained by their circumstances to thrive: After twenty years in the same role, she felt root bound.
- potboundOvergrown within container
- crampedUncomfortably lacking space
- tangledTwisted confusedly together
- crowdedFilled beyond comfort
- repotMove plant's container
pot size · container · circling · stunted · transplant · bigger pot · suffocating · growing pains · tight · constricted · nursery · soil · drainage · wilting · stressed · overgrown · terracotta · rootball
- gardening termsgrowing, blooming, wilting, pruning, grafting
- rootstaproot, radicle, zeros, solutions, eigenvalues
- plant conditionshealthy, diseased, wilted, dormant, flowering
- plant problemsiron deficiency, calcium deficiency, wilting, yellow leaves, potassium deficiency
- planting termssowing, seeding, transplanting, germination, seedbed
- root problemsfungal infection, nematodes, grubs, beetle larvae, girdling