How do you typically plant a potted tree?

General Fruit Growing
1

I usually try to stick with bare root trees but sometimes potted are all I can get. Over the years I have tried planting without disturbing the roots and also tried breaking the edges up but no matter what the roots don’t seem to grow as well, and even after several years in the ground the potted plants are affected by wind much more. The hurricane this year made that apparent.

I have some dormant potted trees on order that I think I will wash away all the soil, prune the roots a little and treat it like a bare root. How are members here dealing with potted plants?

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You can be pretty rough on roots (ideally when dormant planting or early in the season) to loosen up the root ball. Don’t be afraid to lose potting soil or soak it to loosen things up. I’ll cut through roots if circled or too root bound to open up the root ball if needed. They make a tool called root hooks, generally for bonsai, but gives you an idea of what can be used to open up a root ball.

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3

I prefer container trees assuming they have not been left there an excessive amount of time. The roots tend to circle so all I do is either use my finger or a small tool to score the roots. I start at the trunk and score from there to the bottom and back to the opposite side trunk at about 1/2" deep. Bill

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4

I often stick all the roots of a big bare root tree into a 15 or 25 gallon pot. I don’t worry about circling roots until I plant but then I make sure the potting soil is soaked and I pull the circling roots out of the ball stretching them into their new soil. This way an 18" wide pot can contain a tree with almost triple the root spread once they are in the soil of their permanent location and yet I save enough feeder roots in the potting soil to vastly reduce transplant shock. Of course there are also roots that grow out of the pot of my trees because I set them in the soil to reduce watering needs. These roots I also save- usually cutting the pots up to reduce damaging these precious roots.

As far as nursery trees like you are getting, you can also make 4 cuts half way into the rootball if the roots seems constricted to the potting soil but part of your problem may be that you let the trees fruit too soon- the restriction of the pot creates early fruiting and too much fruiting too early will frequently runt out a tree.

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