I drilled about 200 holes with a 1/4 inch drill bit.
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That was probably a memorable project. No water getting stuck in the bottom of that container, I suppose. I’m assuming you keep it on the dolly (and not the ground where it would root)?
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I have used Root Control Bags, that used to be their company name in Oklahoma. I think they use the trade name High Caliper?
They are non-woven fabric as these mentioned. The pots are sized from 1gal to 25 gal+, and rated for in-ground or above-ground. There is an option to add handles. Made in USA!
There are 150 2 gal ones in my potting shed for apple grafts this year. We used these in-ground since the 80’s especially for well rooted large caliber dogwoods, maples. The oaks and bradford pears also went through a trial did quite well even with their difficult rooting structure. There are some left over from 20 years ago still usable.
I have a professor friend, a landscape architect, that rails against them for his design plantings because the size rating for b&b is slightly larger. He is a prickly sort, and doesn’t recommend fertilizing his plantings even in our marginal soils…so I take his opinion on this subject with a grain of salt.
If some of the university studies are supportable, I see no downside to the bags. There is no root circling. I spoke with a nurseryman in west TX a few weeks back. If he can make them work there, Col. may be a similar climate?
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Thought to share, using large plastic/wood containers, and in ground poor soils, I have used 4-6" of washed stone in the bottoms of containers to aid drainage, #67. Found root pruning is required sometimes twice a year using plastic, never with the cloth bags. Dropping a 25-40 gallon container down, removing the plant and then shaving root mass for resizing. Major work!
Did hold the large rosemarys over two years in the greenhouse with 3 re-pottings.
The cloth bags can be inserted/lined in the plastic/wood pots and it root prunes. You get the structural strength of the pot plus the pruning effect. Good marriage.
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Nice! I like the structural support on that idea!
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Anyone used the rootmaker’s roottrapper bags?
Does anyone know much about root trapping versus air pruning, and if root trapping is nearly as good (or a lot better than plastic pot)?
Kind of in line with Appleseed’s idea, they can make a custom liner to fit a barrel or other large container. That would lessen the concerns about moisture loss.
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They make sized products for plastic pot-pruner. The several hundred+++ grown in ground here showed no root circling. As others have suggested, root pruning and potting up a size may be needed every so often. They are on central time and answer call, offer wholesale prices for numbers.
Nice! Good to hear about all of these alternatives, Appleseed!
Potted up 7 grafts last evening, took 1 bag of Daddy Pete’s garden blend soil. HC in-ground bags rated as 2 gallon.
Going to hold them under shade till a bit late in spring/planting. Understand the op was for large containers, but this will show year’s root structure.
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I use them and I highly recommend them. They make beautiful root systems and the white walls keep the bags from drying out rapidly. I’ve kept a couple nursery trees in roottrapper bags for a season before transplanting them and they have done exponentially better than plants I put in the ground immediately.
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How often does everyone change out the soil in their fruit tree/bush containers? I haven’t had any issues yet with mix that has been in a container for 2.5 years. I add a little dash of compost in the spring and put mulch on top. Still draining well and trees seem happy.
I think there were some references above to 3-4 years in plastic and 6+ years in fabric pots, but I don’t have direct experience
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Also… I think I have read in various threads that you know when it is time to pull a tree to root prune and add fresh soil when you can no longer water it enough. I’m not clear if there is also a nutrient or other growing medium consideration.
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I have a potted mulberry that I can’t water enough. I can see fine root hairs covering the entire top surface as though there are more roots than soil. it’s in a #3 or #5 and four feet tall
Anyone have any updates?
I have an apricot and two pluots, about 5 or 6 years in plastic wine barrel liners. They are on automatic drips in the summer with about three emitters each, twice a day for ten minutes, at which point the water is running off the trays beneath.
I’m wondering if it’s too late, or too much work to root prune this year, or maybe even put the apricot in the ground. I can live without the pluits, but would love to get a few more years out of the apricot.
These were from this morning; the buds are showing color, so I’m thinking it’s too late for this year.
This picture was from last year.
A few years ago
I believe the pluots had serious nutritional problems last year, by the apricot, which I care about more than the pluots, seemed okay.
This picture was probably within the first year; 2017
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Peatmoss to be use for containers gardening be careful not to use too much. The problem with peat when they dry out from not proper watering they are very hard to hydrate. Water will just bypass causing soil to stay dry. A lot of package soil’s have a lot of peat in it, which is ok for the first year.
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I have a peach tree growing in one of those root maker like containers (sharp spikes ones). I think it’s probably around 8-10 gallons, when I transplanted the peach sapling it was in a quart pot. Now I see the plant has sent root down to the Bottom and also have tiny hairy roots halfway through. The vigor of this plant is amazing.
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