you might want to try this in the conifer forum also ...

i know.. somewhere.. this was discussed recently.. probably buried deep in some post with an unrelated title ....

but i dont understand why you have gotten no replies..

conifers are trees... regardless of what seed you are trying ... so which forum doenst matter ...

ken

Campanula, I just came from a nut producers' meeting this weekend. A commercial nursery there grows his trees in root maker pots and he likes them. The alternative, for him, was a nursery bed and then digging them at sale size and leaving a lot of the roots behind. For a home grower, such as myself, milk jugs are fine. There was no difference in size between his trees at the same age as mine. I will not be leaving roots in the grow out bed either, as I will just cut the milk jugs and plant the whole root mass. I may have to uncoil the tap root from the bottom of the pots, but this only takes a moment for each one and allows me to plant at any time of the year as the roots are long enough to reach water. I don't have to wait for the fall rains, or figure out how to carry enough water once a week on very hilly, very forested land. I do have to dig a deeper hole, but I don't mind, since I am close to my woods and can plant a few trees each trip. It will depend on how you want to handle things and how much rain you can expect after planting. Roots formed in rootmaker pots can collect water from the top few inches of soil, very well, but are not long enough to establish in open ground without regular watering.

Logically it seems to me they would be good if you tend to over-water plants, if you want to grow trees as big as possible before putting them in the ground, or if you want to keep trees inside this winter and plant them in the Spring.

If you tend to underwater and plan to transplant the trees well before they outgrow the pot, I don't think it matters.