Handling the root ball
Quick answer. Keep the root ball intact and moist, carry the plant by the container or the ball and never by the trunk, and deal with circling roots before planting because they will not correct themselves afterwards. A root ball that has dried out should be rehydrated before it goes in the ground — dry media can resist rewetting even under irrigation.
Circling roots
A plant held in a container long enough sends roots around the inside wall. Planted as they are, those roots continue to circle, and over years a thickening circling root can constrict the trunk it wraps. The window to address it is at planting.
Teasing the outer roots outward, or cutting through the circling ones so they are forced to branch into new directions, is standard practice. It feels destructive and is not: the roots being cut are the ones that would otherwise cause the problem. Roots that are already growing outward should be left alone.
Moisture at planting
Container media are usually peat- or bark-based and behave differently from soil. Once thoroughly dry they become water-repellent, and water applied to the surrounding soil will run past the ball rather than into it. A plant can then die of drought inside wet ground.
Water the plant thoroughly before planting, and water the root ball itself as well as the backfill afterwards. This is the practical reason establishment watering is directed at the ball rather than spread widely in the first weeks.
Handling
Carry by the container, the ball, or from underneath. Lifting a plant by the trunk transfers the whole weight of soil and roots to the point where trunk meets roots, which can tear the fine roots that do the actual water uptake and loosen the ball. The damage is invisible and shows up as a plant that never quite establishes.
Do not "help" a damaged root ball with fertiliser. A plant with disturbed roots cannot use it, and fertiliser in contact with damaged root tissue can injure it further. What a newly planted root ball needs is water continuity and time. See the establishment guide for what follows planting.
Sources
FAO — Fertilizer and Plant Nutrition Bulletin 16, Chapters 4 and 7 (root growth conditions; soil water relations). Accessed 27 August 2026. Root-ball handling practice is horticultural common ground and is labelled as such. No quantity is stated.
Last reviewed 27 August 2026