Separating Plants of Different Species at the Root

[AlyssaFish]

How would you separate a small plant sprout (water willow, in my case) from a "baby" cattail plant?

A cattail seed landed in my water willow planter last year. I pulled the baby cattail out and placed it in a separate container. My water willow plant ended up never coming up this year, except for a tiny sprout sticking out of the root system of the baby cattail plant.

I want to do everything I can to save the new water willow because the parent plant was never robust and has been struggling for years. I am willing to saccrifice the cattail plant (because I have a million cattails now). How can I separate the water willow from the cattail? I don't want the insane rapid growth of the cattails to harm/smother/starve the water willow sprout.

What would you guys recommend? Any experience with this?


Thanks!

 

[Mmathis]

Here’s what I would do: gently pull them both up and put in a container of water. Let them sit for few minutes, and shake or wiggle to get out any soil (or gravel), then gently untangle them the way you untangle a knot in long hair. It won’t hurt the cattail to snip some roots. Sometimes you can easily tell the difference between the 2 root systems, which makes it easier. Just be gentle.

Hopefully there is another way, and someone will post it here.

 

[Lisak1]

And I would just yank them both apart and hope for the best! Most of the time it works, too! But @Mmathis has the better idea... gently separate them, don't worry about a few roots lost - it actually often helps the plant as it stimulates more root growth.

 

[AlyssaFish]

All right! You guys have given me courage to give it a shot! A gentle, slow shot. Luckily for me, there's no soil or rocks to have to worry about--I just have to get it untangled from a decoration at the base of my waterfall.