The Tropical Fruit Forum

Seems like it would be difficult to get plants out of an air pot with all the bumps and verticle walls.  You take a tree in a regular pot and turn it over and tap the pot and it slips right off.  I like to turn my plants over and slip the pot off sometimes to look at the root system and see if its time to up pot or plant out. 

Don't you just remove the "button" that holds the air pot together and then unwrap the sidewall?

Very cool & impressive! Thanks for posting pics!

Here I see the limit of my English...

Hey, you did great, plenty clear! I find it great that there are people from Europe and other places on this forum and if that requires some language bending and/or translation, then that's fine with me. I think it would also be fine to post a paragraph in duplicate in your native language.

Well, so far the ones I've looked at state "do not expose to sunlight for more than X months" where X is pretty small. :-(
Did you get the Dörken Delta MS by any chance?

Do I see correctly that the scion is a shooting tip with a bunch of fresh leaves? Do you do anything special in terms of watering before/after grafting?

Quote from: tve on May 13, 2019, 12:37:26 PM

Interesting, I'll have to see whether I can get that here. Looks like the type of product that US construction might discover in the next century... 

Update: I looked into the specs of two manufacturers and I didn't see anything about UV resistance, which makes sense given that these membranes are designed to be installed underground. I'm not a plastic expert, but as far as I know, UV resistance doesn't come for free, it requires relatively expensive additives. Plastic without such additives breaks down after 6-9 months in the California sun. Unless I'm missing something, that kills this idea for me  .

i keep them outdoor and in full sun .The plastic its verry thin but on the most exposed parts looks like new,didnt discolored or lost flexibility.Only a single pot has a dimple that cracked and i toght its because of UV radiation but its not because its almost in the shade.If kept in a greenhouse then the UV its filtered or best would be to keep them in the shade .They are made for constructions and are a tough material.

Interesting. For how long have you had this stuff outside in the sun?

I found a way to build my own airpots from polypropilene plastic sheets used for construction( concrete casting) and they are put together with pop rivets.

What type of product did you use? I looked at concrete forms and couldn't find anything similar. What is the original use of the PP sheet?

Thanks for the reference, now I'm trying to figure out how to get the full text, ugh. I hate Elsevier and that whole journal system...

We use our greenhouse to start plants for the veggie garden in february. We can get frost all the way to april and it's great to get such a head-start. Also, it's great to baby some small plants that go into the ground later, for example, I have a dozen citrus "trees" in pots there right now plus two dragonfruit. Come june/july the greenhouse is basically emptied and becomes an oven 'til the next cold season. If we had a more conventional property/house a lean-to with some shelving units with lights would probably be the most economical way to go.

Interesting info. Has anyone got some links to the science behind the "maturing" or "curing" of citrus? Citrus is a non-climacteric fruit and also doesn't sweeten with added ethylene (but does change color). There's no starch to convert to sugar in the fruit... I thought that (to quote Wikipedia): "Once [citrus fruits] are separated from the tree, they do not increase in sweetness or continue to ripen. The only way change may happen after being picked is that they eventually start to decay." I'm sure I'm missing something, though 

Dang Logees sells it, just not to CA 

Looks like the area is your slice of heaven.

Yeah, isn't it true that whatever crazy stuff may be happening, a walk in the orchard brings the smile back?

Can you share more detail about the sprinkler and irrigation setup, especially for the younger/newly planted trees?

Nothing really special. I like the Netafim Supernet Jr sprinklers. They're used quite widely commercially but not so easy to source retail. I run a std 1/2" plastic irrigation tube down the row/terrace, and then plug in the sprinklers. I get the blue spreading discs with "short range" tabs. The tabs deflect the spray so only about a 3ft radius is covered, which is great when a small tree goes into the ground. After a few years I break off the tab as the root zone expands to get a ~6ft radius and I move the sprinklers a bit further away from the trunk. Two sprinklers per tree, or just one in between every two trees depending on how things work out. The latter is what is done commercially, but my crazy hillside terraces aren't that regular. In addition, I got special little deflectors that keep the water off the trunk. I can't get those anymore so I now use small binder clips instead. Doesn't seem to be so essential for citrus, more so for stone fruit.

Long reply, but the main thing for me is that I add mulch every year or two and I want sprinklers so the mulch gets rained on and decomposes. We have basically zero rain from about april to november. Plus, in sandy soil I don't believe that drip really works for trees due to the lack of lateral spread of the water.