When you leave trees in original nursery containers

[Mike Corazzi]

How do you sleep at night? I see so many posts with nursery containers.
It would drive me nuts with wondering the state of the roots.
Yet ..work...is being done on them.
Get things looking good-ish and then get the surprise when potting in a nice pot.

Just can't comprehend.
Talking a ...bit...of size. Not sticks in dirt.

 

[coltranem]

I root pruned my trees in nursery pots and many times add a plastic divider under the base. For me these trees are in grow out mode. I might wire a branch or two just to get options and interest in thr future not necessarily for a specific design.

 

[R0b]

Almost always the first thing I do is repot a new tree, of course at the appropriate time. This also applies to more developed trees with unknown provenance. I have yet to regret that and probably never will. I did the same with orchids for the last 30 years.

 

[Lorax7]

How do you sleep at night? I see so many posts with nursery containers.
It would drive me nuts with wondering the state of the roots.
Yet ..work...is being done on them.
Get things looking good-ish and then get the surprise when potting in a nice pot.

Just can't comprehend.
Talking a ...bit...of size. Not sticks in dirt.

Just because a tree is being grown in a nursery container doesn’t necessarily mean it’s being grown in the original nursery soil. I have a number of trees in nursery containers that are nonetheless in akadama, pumice, lava or, if at a fairly early stage of development, in sifted coarse perlite and coco coir.

 

[nuttiest]

How do you sleep at night? I see so many posts with nursery containers.
It would drive me nuts with wondering the state of the roots.
Yet ..work...is being done on them.
Get things looking good-ish and then get the surprise when potting in a nice pot.

Just can't comprehend.
Talking a ...bit...of size. Not sticks in dirt.

Any tree in a large pot you can take out and look at the roots anytime you want, more so than something in a bonsai pot. with loose soil.

 

[minkes]

For me it is what is closer - spring or autumn. In my region winter is very snowy and wet, so when I left trees in original nursery soil many roots suffer from root rot. Now is good time to repot trees, because it is spring here. But if I buy some trees in growing season, I would repot them to “modern” free draining substrate as soon as they drop leaves in autumn and give them some time to grow roots before winter.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Well, now. I fall back on solid advice given to me years back. Which was...on just that sort of material. It changed my entire look on just how frequently I also repot. Because at that time...I thought I needed a schedule. Now...I listen to the tree...is it draining well? If so...I'm not about to rush into a repot. As most my material I get in...is a project needing structure built.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

Well, now. I fall back on solid advice given to me years back. Which was...on just that sort of material. It changed my entire look on just how frequently I also repot. Because at that time...I thought I needed a schedule. Now...I listen to the tree...is it draining well? If so...I'm not about to rush into a repot. As most my material I get in...is a project needing structure built.
View attachment 478563

Well DAMN !!! Bopping along and then comes an expert and EXPLODES MYTHS!
Damn shrapnel!

Age and now, more info is prompting me to quit obsessing (and working my ass off) at REPOT TIME!

 

[HorseloverFat]

Just because a tree is being grown in a nursery container doesn’t necessarily mean it’s being grown in the original nursery soil. I have a number of trees in nursery containers that are nonetheless in akadama, pumice, lava or, if at a fairly early stage of development, in sifted coarse perlite and coco coir.

This is what I was thinking also .. I just REUSE, or chop down nursery containers quite often... Most nursery CONTAINERS I still use, do not contain nursery SUBSTRATE.

THAT being said, I've been know to wait until the soil was an "issue", as well... I Definitely want it there for "bounceback" after initial "large" work/procedures.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I think when choosing to leave in the nursery can and style first, we are looking to see if able to see a solution for the materials top portion.
If I don’t see anything worth pursuing, I’m not going to go through the trouble of repotting the tree, and waiting for it to show me signs of life.
Flip side; if one is able to see a inspiring base, this will become the focus, and the top will come later after a good root prune and repot.

It all depends.

 

[bonsaiDerek]

Since most of my trees are up off the ground, on benches, it seems to me, that the sun shinning all day on a black nursery pot, seems to cook the roots
anyone else experience this?

 

[Eckhoffw]

Since most of my trees are up off the ground, on benches, it seems to me, that the sun shinning all day on a black nursery pot, seems to cook the roots
anyone else experience this?

Yep. That’s real. Putting pots on the ground with mulch around helps. Otherwise a white “tree skirt” cut from something like a white tarp or tyvek will deflect a lot of the heat.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Since most of my trees are up off the ground, on benches, it seems to me, that the sun shinning all day on a black nursery pot, seems to cook the roots
anyone else experience this?

Hmmmm... no. I may live in another climate. My landscape nursery...has some of their pots on benches.

I actually find that nursery pots with their organic medium...need watered less than bonsai medium.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Since most of my trees are up off the ground, on benches, it seems to me, that the sun shinning all day on a black nursery pot, seems to cook the roots
anyone else experience this?

I paint my tables white..

It helps SOME.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

I think when choosing to leave in the nursery can and style first, we are looking to see if able to see a solution for the materials top portion.
If I don’t see anything worth pursuing, I’m not going to go through the trouble of repotting the tree, and waiting for it to show me signs of life.
Flip side; if one is able to see a inspiring base, this will become the focus, and the top will come later after a good root prune and repot.

It all depends.

What I ...have... done is yank the tree, saw the roots, cut the can and plop it back in the shallower can.

 

[BeepBeepBonsaiSheep]

It’s easy. I just enjoy them. Helps me see how they grow. If appropriate, I’ll prune them and watch them recover. They are in grow mode. I don’t need to mess with the roots unless I have to (actually did one because it was pushing out of its pot. I have one other close to the same that I need to do also)

I started in 2021. Everything has stayed in its pot. Just watering and some have been pruned

 

[Paradox]

How do you sleep at night? I see so many posts with nursery containers.
It would drive me nuts with wondering the state of the roots.
Yet ..work...is being done on them.
Get things looking good-ish and then get the surprise when potting in a nice pot.

Just can't comprehend.
Talking a ...bit...of size. Not sticks in dirt.

I sleep very well. If its the wrong time of year to repot or otherwise mess with the roots, its better to just leave it in the pot.
Ive kept many many trees in their original nursery container in the nursery soil over the winter, longer than a year and I have never had a problem with them at all.
Yes even ones that were a decent size.

If it makes you that nervous, my suggestion to you is to never buy a tree outside of repotting time.

 

[August]

I work with trees and shrubs in nursery pots from #1 all the way up to #25. Most are fine in their for years. We have a couple trees that just came out of their second winter with us. It depends on the nursery though. Monrovia typically drains very well and they have something like 40 different potting mixes they use. And then ive seen boxwood grown in Ohio that looked like they were in pure clay. Those didnt make it...

Though if you're buying trees or shrubs from garden centers, check the rootball everytime. It's hard to water the inventory with nuance when its 90 degrees, in the busiest part of the season, with a labor team made of highschoolers. The easiest thing to do is to water everything once every day. Hell. ive seen twice...

Anyways ive seen far more overwatering in garden centers than underwatering. I'll be walking through the tables and just smell whole sections of rot sometimes. Bleh.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Well DAMN !!! Bopping along and then comes an expert and EXPLODES MYTHS!
Damn shrapnel!

Age and now, more info is prompting me to quit obsessing (and working my ass off) at REPOT TIME!

Now can breathe deep, relax, sleep well.

 

[Shibui]

Since most of my trees are up off the ground, on benches, it seems to me, that the sun shinning all day on a black nursery pot, seems to cook the roots
anyone else experience this?

We experience pretty hot, dry summers most years. I grow out hundreds of trees in black plastic pots and I have never seen cooked roots. Most damage is from soil drying out rather than direct sun and heat.
I'm also comfortable growing trees out in standard nursery pots with a couple of provisos:

• I do like to see the roots before making style decisions above ground. Many commercial trees are potted way too deep in the pots because that's the easy way for the underpaid and undertrained labourers to do the repotting. This can mean the trunk is longer than anticipated = your tree will be unbalanced when potted down later. It can also mean that main roots grow upward to fill the new soil giving a poor nebari. If roots on one side are higher and you've styled an upright or leaning tree the roots won't look right. There can also be trunk anomalies, reverse taper, etc hidden below the soil.
• Tres that have been up-potted several times can have very tangled, twisted or bent main roots. Better to sort that out before styling the top.
• Initial root pruning can promote much better nebari and enhance trunk buttress.
• Soil type may dictate how we need to water trees in nursery pots but that also applies to trees from bonsai nurseries because, as we know, everyone has their own favourite mix that suits their conditions but may not suit ours. I prefer to get new trees into my preferred soil mix at the earliest opportunity so they can be managed the same as all my others.

I see no problem with reducing roots from deeper nursery pots to shallow bonsai pots. With some species it may take a couple of intermediate steps but for most we can go straight down, especially if some initial work was done.