centaura

Yes, there are pros and cons to both methods - I was trying to be fair and point out both, though I think my bias towards keeping it in the pot was shining through a bit. The cutting around an established plant is a very common collecting trick, if you can come back a year (or two) later to the same spot to get the tree. I did that with a beech on my mother's property in NC. I gave it a bit of a trim, took a shovel around the root ball and left it for another year before collecting it. It helps break up the roots surrounding the tree, and encourages them to branch out so that there are more fine roots when you come back to collect the tree later. But, since there is "unlimited" space under the tree, there is nothing that is going to push those roots closer to the surface or to encourage them to grow more laterally than vertically downward. So, yes, you get more roots around the tree that in the future can develop into a nebari, but won't while its in the ground. Does that make sense?

I was encouraging this person to keep the tree in the pot, partly because it was already in a pot, and partly because in the timeframe that he's going to need to develop the top of the tree, he should get a really nice nebari if he's kept it in a pot for that time period.

There is a large public collection that I am one of the volunteers for, and its curator is adamantly against growing things in the ground. I don't totally agree with his opinion, though I do think that there are times when its not beneficial. And I can see his points - one of which is the courseness of the growth. But I can't agree with him 100% - if you're dealing with things starting at the sapling level, then yes, by all means I support putting them in the ground. But I do agree with his arguments about working with more advanced material, or when you're going to start refinement work on something that has a good begining - like the material in this post.

-Centaura

Marrero

I had the idea that the objective was to develop faster the branching of the tree since it received a severe trunk chop. With this in mind, I prefer to go to the ground. I have the benefit to be in the tropic, so trees here grow very fast when in ground but they slow down a lot when in pot. An alternative is to shift to a larger pot every six months. You get a more controlled grow (this is what I do to most of the developing trees I have).

To develop nebari I also remove from pot but use wood box whick allows the soil mix to have plenty of air contact in all sides. You can use the pots used for acuatic plants.

If you want upper grow AND also develop lateral growth of roots, you can put in soil with a large slab of a flat stone or terrazo three to six inches under the root ball. This will prevent downward growth. Cutting with a flat shovel every six to nine months is a nice idea. It seems logical that trimming will stimulate branching of the roots. I will try it.

shaggybirdman

if you put it back in the ground get a 1 foot square piece of tile. plant it on top of that. it will keep the roots rather flat, and low around the tree. if you intend on putting it in a larger pot get a 2'x2' tile. i just got access to my sisters garden to put some trees in to grow out.

tlynchjr

The trident is looking better considering how much I had to cut back due to the trunk damage. It was a toss up between keeping in the ground or a pot. It had a decent year of growth. I guess I will wait and see what next year brings.

http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/q...P1010140-1.jpg