Well I've been researching this a lot since many people told me my 1-gallon pots were too small....

But every growing bible I've read said 1-4 gallon is acceptable.

From what I've read a 24" plant will only have a root-ball the size of a baseball. Once they reach 4-feet high the root-ball can reach softball size. It is that point where they become too large for a 1-gallon pot.

If you look around at other similar plants and trees the root are of similar size and don't really need a large area to mature.

However as was said the bigger the root the bigger the plant.
alienhybrid Reviewed by alienhybrid on . How large should the root-ball be? Here is my problem-plant. After trying everything to help her, someone suggested to transplant her into another pot with better soil. Below are pictures taken a few hour after her transplant. She hasn't went into shock yet (she looks the same or maybe even a little better since the transplant). But when I transplanted her, her rootball was as big as my fist. For a girl, I have a good size fist, but I would think that her root ball should have been bigger than that. She is 7 months old and has Rating: 5