I am planting a daylily that I just purchased (dug directly from the field and brought home). I want to know if I should cut off some of this massive root. I've bleached and rinsed it so far. The pictures show the root mass from a couple side views.

I would cut back roots to fit my hole

I would be inclined to remove any rotting or hollow roots and plant it otherwise intact.

Thanks for the input. I think I will cut back that heavy root "stem" a bit. It's just such a large mass. It may expose some more hollow roots. I did remove as many as I could see. Also let it sit in the sun this afternoon to dry out a little before planting.

Usually I would recommend keeping an entire root system intact and making the hole large enough to accommodate it, but it looks like the greenery is missing from a few crowns. If the greenery was accidently knocked off during the dig (I've done that) then I would separate everything that didn't belong to the one fan and plant your one fan separately. Leaves may or may not regrow, depending how far down into the crown the damage is, but should those bare crowns look to be the result of rot, you wouldn't want that with your good fan. As Sue said, trim dead roots, but I would leave all that was healthy that belongs to the one intact fan.