Has anyone tried stratified growing media?

[Vlad]

It is described here:
https://www.nurserymag.com/article/stratification-growing-media-research/

[brian]

I just read the article, it is nice to see they are taking steps to investigate the various watering issues many of us have encountered with containers.  I think about the perched-water-table articles a lot and I have read some bonsai growing articles to see what kind of soil medium they use (too expensive for me, unfortunately)

Another thing that has stuck in my head is the photo pasted here some years ago of a wind-uprooted mature citrus tree.  Pretty much ALL of the roots were in the first foot of soil or so, shaped like a giant root pancake.  I have some container trees I want to keep as small as possible, and I have started root-pruning the lowest roots and moving them to shallow & wide pots, hoping to eventually move them into something like this

[poncirsguy]

I use a stratified mix for my potted citrus trees to control perched water tables.

[Millet]

Very interest concept Vlad.  Thanks or posting the article.  I'll give it a try.

[pagnr]

I think it's worth noting that this article is mainly about 'production nursery' techniques, i.e. producing plants for sale over a short time period.
Most people here are probably keeping plants in the same pots/media for longer periods, and the plant will grow and pull more water out as it gets bigger.
The drainage/waterholding issues will change under influence of the size of the plant growing in it.
That said, it has some good points about the structure of the lower strata of pot media, and not needing the NPK at the bottom of the pot.
As for myself I have found that the same pot media also behaves slightly differently seasonally, i.e. in hot weather. water holding/drainage/ watering requirements different than in cool weather.
I have used a screen to fine up the top layer of seed raising mix, and use the saved coarser particles lower in the pot. Not a 2 layer stratification, but similar ??
If using the exact same pot media, increasing the height of the pot effectively increases the air space of the mix, and lowers the saturated zone further below the root zone. Stratification aims to do this, but economically in reasonable sized pots for sale and shipment.