Fruit trees, pots and root bags.

[seneca196]

just to note - I planned to remove the entire base of the 280l pot so drainage holes won't exist, as there will be no bottom of the container (they will be cut off along with the entire base - so leaving a tube.) I suppose it's easier to think of what I'm talking about if you think tube, not container.

[Kristen]

I think all that will do is to restrict the tree and make it harder for it to pull up feed and water. Its fine for things like Figs which fruit better if their roots are restricted, but if you aren't actually going to get the trees up (e.g. to bring them in for the Winter) then i don't see any advantage in planting them with root-restriction. I think it will just stunt them (and if that is the aim then better to sue a dwarfing rootstock instead) - but they tend to be more difficult to look after - increasingly so the more dwarfing the rootstock that is used.

[seneca196]

There should be no need to get the trees up, as I was mainly referring to apples and pears that would be fine left outdoors. By removing the entire base of a pot surely the roots are now unrestricted regarding growing downwards. Roots will still hit the sides of the container, but are free to go down. In the same way that roots grow out of the drainage holes and make it difficult to pull the pot up, without a base it would be well anchored and I would never bother to remove it. My idea was to put the a tree that ideally needs a few metres of root space next to another, but this would be in a pot. By removing the base the potted tree would first grow into its pot and then eventually down. If this pot was around 80cm wide and 50cm high that would give it some room to grow into and then down. So, I could maybe put a mmm106 apple tree in the ground and then nearby an m26, or maybe even another mm106 nearby in a large pot (with base removed.) Probably not making much sense, but I'll see if I can draw a picture.

[Kristen]

I agree that the roots can grow down, but I think surface feeder roots and deep roots are doing different jobs, and for a tree planted conventionally I would expect to find far more surface (well, within a foot of the surface) roots than I would deep roots. I think if it was a sure-fire winner someone would have done it before and it would now be the "norm" although new things are discovered all the time of course ...

Normally I'd say "give it a go" but for a fruit tree its several years to find out whether it is a (long term) problem, or not, so I'm erring on the side of "might not work" to prevent disappointment, and several growing seasons' time lost