Well, collanders (or maybe grow boxes) are going to be better than pots, but still confine a lot of roots... your call I suppose. Raised beds are another half a'd thing... there could be issues with water - possibly too much runoff - not enough being held where it would be naturally, or roots growing in directions you may not want them to. Trees are not veggies, so why grow them that way?

Wiring is generally done in the fall and best left til trees are hardened off unless you're talking about indoor tropicals, which you might want to shape with different things like small weights, twist ties, etc, not something you'd be as likely to do outdoors where wind is a factor and small animals, though of course conventional wiring is done on tropicals, but often when they're more mature.

This post was edited by moochinka on Wed, Feb 4, 15 at 22:16

A raised bed (RB) is the same as planting in the ground, or better - if you use an appropriate soil and keep up with any additional water demands a heavily amended RB soil might demand. 90% of the material I purposely put in the ground to gain size goes in RBs, and I stick about the same % of my temperate cuttings directly into the soil in my RBs. I've started many hundreds of trees from cuttings that way, so why not skip the colander or grow boxes until AFTER their stint in the ground?

All the hodge podge of plants in the pic are intended as future bonsai. Nearly all (but any pines) are from cuttings. When they get to an appropriate size, I'll lift then, cut them back hard, and give them a year to recover in a less congested area (also a RB) I maintain for that purpose.

Al

Thanks for the replies.

Mainly as I am in Georgia with heavy red clay doing a smallish 6'X6' raised bed will be easier than digging 4 holes in the clay. I planned it heavily amended, and watered well throughout the season. I had heard of people growing great trees like this with great roots, so very good to hear Al.

I also had seen a vid of a guy with great trees/roots who planted the collanders in the ground up to the lip... figured it would be easier to contain the roots, and would keep me from planting plates/tiles under them.

Other option would be grow boxes or collanders on my porch.. which has it's merit (we have a lot of squirrels, rabbits, and some deer in the neighborhood), but would likely take me twice as long to grow the same sized trees.

ahh... looking through my links I think this was a thread on the in ground collanders, but was an aussie forum... http://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14986&sid=e8876abcbba9e38d323ac89a32362428

This post was edited by RGodman on Thu, Feb 5, 15 at 9:52

If your beds are over clay, don't amend the clay - at all. Just build your beds on top of the clay, put down layers of newspaper or cardboard, then the RB soil. If you amend the soil underneath, you create the bathtub effect - water from the surrounding clay will seep into your amended soil below the beds and fill the amended depression with water. You can, however, amend the clay if you are on a slope and use a tile or ditch to direct water away from the depression.

In fact, after several years, the bathtub effect will occur on its own as soil life carries OM into the clay beneath the beds, increasing its porosity. It's inevitable unless you use a tile, open ended French drain, ditch .....

Al