Which is extremely useful in heavy soils. Potted trees tend to have much of the roots on the bottom of the pot at a depth of inadequate oxygen in such soils. Where drainage is a problem I purposely spread roots of tees being transplanted close to the surface.
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@chingchungly I get your concern. It seems like it would be very detrimental to the plant, especially since I think most of us grew up being told to never mess with the roots of a plant. Counterintuitively, there’s not really an appreciable difference in how well a tree does whether bare rooted or potted if it’s cared for properly after planting. If you’re watering a tree adequately, a bare root with most of its roots chopped off can still draw enough water to grow as well or better than a potted tree. Without adequate water, a bare root will definitely suffer, but so will a potted tree. If you ever want to know how much root disturbance a tree can take, watch videos on how to repot bonsai. Bonsai growers really know how to optimize tree health and growth, and they have no hesitation removing 50% or more of a trees roots when repotting.
There’s also a saying that a bare root tree will “sleep, creep, then leap.” That is, it will “sleep” the first year, not doing much, grow noticeably the second year, then take off. I’m pretty convinced this is a myth, or at least applies just as much to potted as bare root. I’ve had bare roots go from 8" tall to 6’ in a single season, and I’ve had potted trees seem to not do anything for a few years, and every possible combination in between. I notice more reliable variation between species, varieties, or even individuals than between bare root and potted.
So the take home for me is that either is fine. Given a choice mail-ordering, I’ll usually go bare root for the better selection and lower cost. But if I can only find something in a pot, I don’t have any real reservations with that, either. The one real downside with potted plants that hasn’t been mentioned is that it’s much easier for pests and diseases to hitch a ride in those. The inspection requirements on potted materials are more stringent for this reason, but things can get missed.
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The problem is that if a potted tree looks like this, by the time you do the required “root surgery” to correct the issue, you have no more root mass left than you would in a bare-root tree in many cases.
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Another point to ponder is ‘what is in that pot’ ? I have been ordering plants/trees/canes for years and in those pots are bugs/cocoons/larvae/diseases/jumping worm eggs…who knows?
Ive ordered from the east coast, west coast, down south, up north…and a few from other countries.
I have learned the hard way to put every plant in quarantine before it hits my soil.
All foreign pot soils get tossed away from my property and roots are washed and soaked and washed again.
Bare root makes all that easier for me.
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Two comments, both of which build on this insight.
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Once a long time ago, I planted two bare root apple trees. A few weeks later I decided that I had planted them too close. So I tried to dig up one tree and move it. To my surprise, the original bare roots had sprouted masses of new white roots. The new roots had roughly 5 times the mass of the original bare (brown) roots.
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Twice in the past 3 years, I grafted apples and pears – roughly 60 trees in total. I used purchased barefoot rootstock trees. In most cases, the rootstocks trees had the most minimal roots imaginable. But not a single rootstock tree failed to grow. Only ~3 grafts failed. By the end of the 1st season, each grafted tree was 4-6’ tall. Evidently the barefoot trees found a way to grow good roots.
I could tell more similar stories, but hopefully you get the point. The tree will do just fine.
p.s. Pruning is arguably also very “invasive” to the tree. But good pruning is critical.
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When you get your hands in the ground and see how roots grow you learn things you can’t really get from books. It is amazing how much a transplanted trees roots can grow the first year it is transplanted, even when the top of the tree barely grew at all.
Same deal, planted trees and a change in plans. When you install orchards for other people it happens some times. But I also move some of my trees from a protected fenced area to my more expansive unfenced area after sizing them up a couple years and finish them off before selling them. I get to study a lot of dug up plants.
Tomorrow I will be packing up about 30 bare root bearing age apple trees to have trucked from NY to NC- along with another 35 in pots or in-ground bags. I expect the bare roots to plug in quickest of all.
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I agree with @alan about dissimilar soils in the pot vs. the native soil interfering with the capillary action of water. I have been known to take potted trees and wash all the soil off their roots before planting, if it happens to be during the season the tree is dormant.
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Another consideration is that potted plants and balled plants sometimes limit the grower’s ability to see whether the root system may have a wrapped or circling root in the center which might constrict the growth of the plant and strangle it as it becomes established. With bare root, those twisted and circling inner roots are easily seen and removed when planting, and then replaced by the plant during the first year…
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Potted trees do not grow in a natural way in the first place.
ALL potted trees have disturbed roots once the roots start touching the pot.
ALL potted trees are root-pruned or have encircling roots once they reach the wall of the pot.
There are many different fruit and nut trees that you may have difficulty finding in pots. When you do find them in pots, they may be quite small. You can generally buy much larger trees bare root than you can in pots. If you do find trees in large pots they are VERY expensive and either very difficult or very expensive to transport.
Digging up bare rooted trees may damage roots, but growing trees in pots often results in stunted growth and a compacted root system which is not good for the trees.
Below are bare root chestnut trees. They are field grown and most will be re-planted the same day or the next day after soaking the roots. They will be fine. Had they been grown in pots they would be half this size with compacted roots and be much more expensive and more difficult to transport. I would rather pay to transport a tree than to transport dirt.
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@BG1977 – Try this. Using a hand-held pruning saw, slice 1-2" off the bottom. Then make 1-4 vertical cuts, taking off 1" each, making the round rootball somewhat square. Using this method, you remove both the clutter at the bottom and the mess circling the side. But 80% of the rootball is undisturbed.
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@jrd51 is it really 80% preserved though? I’ve cut off circling roots that, once unraveled were 2 to 3 feet long, you can’t tell me that you can do that and still have 80% of the roots left in a 12-inch wide pot.
If you try transplanting bareroot trees fully leafed out the chances are they will die with species I deal with- there is a point where trees are incapable of drawing enough water to keep them alive, known as the permanent wilting point as I recall- cute name. Dead is shorter.
I’m amazed that chestnut trees are so resistant to this means of death. Horticulturists have devised ways to increase the chances of survival for non-dormant bare root trees, including stripping all the leaves and misting during the day.
I really don’t see how soaking the roots would make a discernable difference because trees taken out of moist soil already have all the moisture they can hold, I believe.
I don’t mean this as a criticism, I believe you must be doing this with chestnuts and I find that amazing. I see that the trees were removed with much more respect for the roots than what is usual for commercial operations of dormant bare roots trees even though they also benefit from retrieving more root than less.
In my nursery business I found out a long time ago that certain species respond better to dormant bare root transplanting than others. It hasn’t worked well for decent sized pears (2" diameter and up).
Are you in the fog belt on the west coast?
These are not my trees. This is a common way of selling trees in Turkey.
Perhaps they are fall dug and the leaves are to be stripped. That is a standard method for early digging of bare root trees.
Good eye. They are Fall dug.
They sell them like this to show buyers they are not dead. The buyers will decide whether to strip the leaves.
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Very nice looking trees and they look to be grafted to selected varieties. I’d buy.
I found a nice-looking potted plum tree at a local nursery on clearance, so bought it. Then came the problem how to fit it in my Toyota wagon. I was able to lay it on its side. Then came the issue of getting it up steep steps up to my hillside orchard. That was the last potted tree I bought.
And quite a few of the pests that get spread around are at least more plentiful in that dirt.
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@BG1977 – You’re focusing on woody roots, which are the structure that a tree uses to locate a spot where it can grow fine feeder roots. The woody roots themselves don’t have a major role absorbing water and nutrients. So you can afford to lose them.
In fact, you’re better off losing them. When woody roots fill up a pot, they’re worse than useless because there’s less room for soil and feeder roots. You’re better off with woody roots that are 12" long with lots of fine feeder roots sucking up water and nutrients.
Think of the role of woody branches above the ground. Branches are just a way to get leaves to sunlight. The branches themselves don’t collect solar energy. Everything between the trunk and the leaves is useless shady space. You can get equivalent solar collection from a smaller tree with fewer branches (thanks to pruning) so that sunlight penetrates the canopy and strikes leaves that grow closer to the trunk.