Should we be bare rooting trees?

[Vlad]

I just read this post: https://www.gardenmyths.com/washing-tree-roots/
I grow my citrus and fig trees in pots and bare root the trees after I get them from a vendor and before putting them into 5:1:1 mix or gritty mix. I do this because the mix that the trees come in is usually different than the mix I put them in. The mixes that I use are fast draining while some of the mixes that the trees come in are not (they contain a lot of peat). I found that repotting the trees with this kind of mix is problematic because the water drains around the peat based mix in the root ball and does not penetrate into the roots.
I have bare rooting my trees for years without problems.

[lebmung]

Very time consuming, only done when it's necessary

[Millet]

I bare root my trees when I transplant them.  When bare rooting a tree's root ball, do not rush and do not just force the old medium to dislodge.  The small root hairs will be damaged. Bare rooting can be a slow process, and all the while the roots must be kept moist. Any forceful removing of the original medium will break off the small root hairs, which must be avoided.  A partial bare rooting of the outer portion of the root ball is better than no bare rooting at all.

[Laaz]

I have never had a issue & I bare root all of my trees when  moving up to larger containers. I have damaged may roots over the years & never had a setback.

[Millet]

>>> I have damaged many roots over the years & never had a setback.<<<

Damaged roots will certainly cause a set back to a tree, how damaging the set back depends on the amount of roots that were damaged.

[Galatians522]

I talked to a man who ran a citrus nursery and planted orange trees for a living about this. He told me that originally citrus trees were grown at in-ground nurseries. All of these trees were bare rooted before being planted in the groves. Eventually, the state required citrus nurseries to grow their trees in pots. The remarkable part is that he claimed that when they took the time to bare root the potted trees before planting them in the Florida sand the trees grew faster! He had trialed this on a large scale on several occasions and the results were always the same--the bare rooted trees flushed long before the trees that were planted without disturbing the potting soil. The other crazy thing is that he claimed that there was no difference in tree survival--as long as the trees were not flushing. "A citrus tree should never be dug when it is flushing."

[Laaz]

>>> I have damaged many roots over the years & never had a setback.<<<

Damaged roots will certainly cause a set back to a tree, how damaging the set back depends on the amount of roots that were damaged.

If you say so... Once I up pot the trees in new soil, they almost immediately flush new growth. I guess that's what you call "set back"?

[Citradia]

I repotted all my citrus in 50:50 Turface/ garden soil this year and removed all the previous potting soil, lost a few minor roots in process, but within a week or two, everything started pushing new growth, big Saint Teresa bloomed and fruited for the first time. Done great. I’ve cultivated bonsai trees in the past, not citrus species, but other species such as crabapple and dwarf pomegranate, azalea, wisteria, etc, and of course had to severely root prune and top prune proportionately of course, and they all did well and were potted in bonsai soil which resembles the 50:50 Turface blend. Amazing how plants can recover from pruning with appropriate aftercare. Osmacote mixed in with my Turface by the way.

[luak]

Just show you how I do my tree’s.
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<br /><br /><br />picture uploader<br />

[luak]

I go along what Laaz wrote. If you do it often enough,you can almost up/repot year around. Got about 50 tree’s in containers. All good looking.
Btw, I woke up from a long sleep to find out that the form is also in a deep sleep. Winter is the season for lot’s of citrus articles.