pot bound sprouts

[Dotty Sarah]

Hey peeps, I bought a tray of sprouts a couple of weeks ago as I didn't have any seeds but hadn't got around to repotting them until today. There are 3 plants per module and they are impossible to separate without tearing the roots.

should I be brutal and pull them apart or just cut my losses and cut the stems off all but the strongest from each module?

Thanks in advance

[Alison]

How wet is the compost? If it's quite dry then wetting it would help you to separate the roots. Brassicas to do cope quite well with rough treatment and won't mind some breakages but obviously you can't destroy the entire root ball. Without seeing them it's a bit difficult to say but unless they're really bad then I'd try and separate.

[rustylady]

I'm like Alison, I would have a go at separating them. I hate wasting plants

[Dotty Sarah]

Heres a picture, managed to get it off my phone now! They're quite bad but I've now put them in to soak.

I'm a bit worried how much root will actually remain undamaged

[Snadger]

Treat em ard.............go for it!

[BertieFox]

Absolutely agree. In fact, they say damaging the tap root is a GOOD thing anyway with brassicas like sprouts and it's still very, very early in the sprout planting season.
What I would do is separate them as carefully as possible, re-pot them into four or five inch pots, and then as soon as the root system has recovered a bit and starts peeking out of the bottom of the pots, then plant out. If you plant them out now with very few roots, and the weather turns dry (I know, I must be completely mad to think that could happen!) then it will be more difficult to establish them without lots of watering.