airpots
Hi All,
Last year I found a new style of containers made by the Caledonian Tree Company called Airpots. The pots are designed to eliminate root circling, increase root density from the trunk and improve overall root health (presumably leading to improved top health).
This is what the containers look like:
In traditional containers, when the root meets the edge, it turns and begins circling around the perimeter of the growing medium. In Airpots, when the root meets the edge (inward cone), it is forced into a chamber and out of the hole at the end outward cone. Once it exits the hole, the root is air-pruned (preventing long circling roots) and the tree will produce a new root (creating a denser root mass).
It seemed like a pretty cool concept so I gave them a try with all of my cuttings last year. Did it work?
Well sort of...
Most of the roots were successfully forced through the holes and root pruned. But not all were, a few did "circle around" the perimeter, and even more turned back into the pot and grew across.
This is a rooted Vernino:
The yellow arrows point to two roots coming off the same branch. One grew on either side of the trunk. The red arrow points to another root coming off the side, up and back into the growing medium.
Also, here is the base of a container growing a Violette de Bordeaux:
You can see that the root came out of the bottom of the container and then turned and grew back into the container.
Here is a picture of the Vernino above with the container removed:
You can see where the roots are traveling around the perimeter of the growing medium and some growing back into it. Even though the containers I was using were 6 inches tall and 4 inches in diameter, I had roots on some varieties that were as much as 16" long. Again, the Vernino pictured above.
As you can see there were some longer roots, but not as many as when I rooted in more conventional containers. You can also see the success of these containers. The density of roots coming from the trunk is markedly more significant than those grown in a raised bed. Here is a Celeste grown in the raised bed for about the same amount of time as the Vernino:
This is an Excel grown in an Airpot:
Compared to the Celeste, you can see that it not only has more roots coming from the trunk, but they are also finer (and according to Tapla, more efficient at absorbing moisture/nutrients).
A few rooted cuttings had no circling roots, and needed no pruning at all, but all had fairly dense root systems (even those that were shy rooters). Also, there was some discussion in the past about rooting in clear containers for root confirmation. Even though these are black plastic containers, there is a built in root confirmation.
Overall I am very pleased with these containers and have placed an order for the 3.4 and 12 gallon containers to transplant my trees into for this year. I'm hoping that the reduction of root circling with allow me to root prune every other (or maybe even every third) year instead of yearly.
~james
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axier - Z10, Basque Country (Spain)
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