Emily: My general sense of how life works, guides me to believe that human intervention typically does more harm than good. I don’t see what good can come from chopping off 90% of a plants root system, in order to move it to another location. The trauma of losing its root system far exceeds any difficulty caused by growing close to a companion.
For example: During the evolution of plants, nitrogen availability acted as a rate-limiting factor in their growth. Therefore, plants didn’t develop effective systems to prevent the uptake of excessive nitrogen. So when they encounter excess nitrogen, they just absorb it into their tissues, and the excess amino acids poison the plant. Then, they invite insects to eat their leaves in order to reduce the excess amino acids. Therefore, when people fertilize with nitrogen, they tend to create insect predation problems for the plants. Low-fertility agriculture minimizes pest pressure.