Oxycotin,MJ is amaseing what it can grow thru /in /around/its the weed in it.But I think with all the breeding to develop the biggest /strongest buds some strains are weaker than the weed of old when it comes to putting up with insects/harsh conditions.
I too bury my plants up to the first set of leaves right after transplant.But I make sure to cut the bottom and sides of whatever container I am taking the plant out of.That way the root ball is transplanted intact like it wasn't moved at all except for the extra dirt on top.I have seen friends who turn the plant up side down and pull it out of the container and lose a lot of the soil from around the root ball.The plants usually live but mine always are bigger and fuller for many different reasons.But also because my plants don't even know they were transplanted.If the roots are root bound(growing back into themselves)I will purposely loosen the bottom of the root ball by sticking my fingers in the root ball from the bottom and wiggle them and spread out the root ball.That way the roots have a chance to untangle themselves and grow out and down.If I do this I do not put dirt on top of the root ball right after transplanting. I just recently had to replace 37 sabal palms that another company had planted too deep.They planted them about 1 foot too deep and 37 out of 120 died.They did this so they would not have to stake the palms to keep them from falling.We planted them right and staked them and all are doing fine.They are already(3months later)pushing up more frons and look better than the palms that were planted too deep(1 year ago) but are living.Root systems have to breath,some more than others.Some times you can get away with planting Sabal palms deep and a lot of people try it but they never look as good as the ones planted even or a little higher to the ground than the top of the rootball.The same applies to plants so I would think that it might slow the growth of MJ too and we dont want that.If you can transplant with out disturbing the root ball at all the plant wont even know it was moved.
