Author Topic: Air pruning pots--opinions?  (Read 15150 times)

Mark in Texas

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Re: Air pruning pots--opinions?
« Reply #50 on: May 15, 2019, 02:38:11 PM »
My pots are better than the airpots for sale, for a narrow and tall volume because you can see in the pictures they dont have holes in the upper part so that the water doesnt leak out of the pot too fast.But it was a bad idea after a closer look at the trees ,most of them are dead ,probably because i didnt watered them for half a year and pecans like wet soil.Bad news to find out that my seedlings of wild and northern pecans died.I scratched the bark on every tree and 14 are still green but they didnt leafed out as they should by now.Maybe inside a greenhouse these air pots work but not outside and not with pecans.

Airpots will work indoors and out by terminating the root tip via light and air.  If you don't have holes, you have root spin out.  I've posted a very large and old tree in a RootBuilder "pot"  (actually it's a raised bed) that was a good 25' in diameter, never to be moved from that site.

Your pots need to be much wider to be effective regarding building a massive fibrous root system.

Being that the rootball is fibrous and there's no roots at the perimeter of a pot trees come out of these pots much easier than conventional.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 02:42:07 PM by Mark in Texas »

Mark in Texas

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Re: Air pruning pots--opinions?
« Reply #51 on: May 15, 2019, 02:45:49 PM »
The tap root of a pecan seedling from an air pot.It did the job but it also killed most if not all of my pecans.

I and the forest service has been using root tip pruning systems for decades.  I've never lost anything in them.  Something else is going on like your watering schedule.

SeaWalnut

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Re: Air pruning pots--opinions?
« Reply #52 on: May 15, 2019, 04:32:36 PM »
I agree it was my fault for the watering schedule and not the type of pots but in winter ,the water freezes here thats why i couldnt wet them.Water freezed in the pots and evaporated through the holes because frost weather makes a verry dry enviroment.Somme people dry their clothes outdoor by freezing where they first freeze solid.Thats what happened to my pots and these pots altough they are made from a cheap material ,they are unique and i dont think youl find such tall pots ,70 cm tall and narrow that will also have holes to the sides.The air pruning pots used by forest services only have the base cut out and they are not that tall as my pots.

Seanny

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Re: Air pruning pots--opinions?
« Reply #53 on: May 15, 2019, 08:21:24 PM »
I read Whitman's 4" rule and I followed it.
I used 4" diameter pots for seedlings.
I realized that it made no sense to have 2" for side root growth when it should have been 4".

Now I use 8" diameter pots to start seedlings.
I'm raising air-pot bottom disk up to 6" from top
so I'll get 4" of soil and 2" for solid pot to hold water.




If I buy more pots for seedlings I would choose 10" diameter.