What are you using for a pot ?

Here is the site:

http://www.superoots.com/

They are called airroot pots. I dont recommend them past a 1 gallon size in very dry hot areas. Otherwise, you have to water everyday. They dry out very fast.

Jose,

Are you suggesting not to use an Air-Pot larger than one gallon? I have the opposite problem. My rooter pots are drying out. The larger containers do great. Of course Houston is by no means dry. I have the same issue in Austin.

I think Ben Walker was having a similar issue with the containers drying out. He double potted and solved the issue. In the past when I was traveling, I would pack bark mulch between my containers to help retain moisture.

~james

James,

The cost for me to justify buying ~50 pots at $175 (for the >1 gal pots)is too much. I have problems in our dry heat keeping the rooting pots moist in the 1 gal size. I only use them for 1-gal size because by then I can bump them up to a 5 gal and keep them there for a while. At that point, I alredy have the nice roots from the 1-gal pots.

The picture reminds me of a banyan-like growth habit. Any chance that somewhere in its genome edible figs share some or all of the genes necessary for such growth with these other figs? Maybe their common ancestor was a banyan?

The roots up there are because the cutting was rooted in potting soil fully submerged in the soil. So, as a result roots grew up the entire cutting. I keep the new potted rooted cutting in a semi-humid environment and get as much roots in soil, just like you saw above.

I cut the roots as an experiment to see if I could get a few more trees.

How does the jury currently feel on how well these work (or not).

I'm thinking about the 2.5 Gallon size and augmenting the potting mix with the water-absorbing crystals for rooting figs and grapevine and blueberry cuttings.

Sans, they are a pain to water, I have a hard time sometimes getting the water to soak thru the entire cross section of the pot because the water like to got thru the holes first. They also dry out in my climate pretty fast.

I need to up pot some here in the next week, so I will also take pics of the root ball.

loslunasfarms,
I'd be happy to take them off your hands for a fair price!!

I plan to use a "dunk tank" method where I can completely submerge the pot in a larger (7 Gallon bucket) filled w/ water/fritzes/etc. let it soak for 5 minutes and then remove and let drain over a second container.

Also, I think by mixing in a few tablespoons of "super-absorbent crystals" ( I use those from www.water-keep.com ) into my rooting medium, I hope to get better water retention.

I'd be happy to send you some of those crystals if you want to give them a try.

Sand, send me an email off line.