Late May is awfully late to be receiving anything bare root - that is usually a dormant period transaction......like late winter/early spring. I would be very surprised if the plants are not already out of dormancy at this late date. And that being the case they should be planted ASAP. Whether you choose to do so in a container or directly into the ground is up to you....arguments can be made in either direction :-) Just get them planted!!

I thought it was late too. I ordered 6 plants and the company sent me 2 plants they had in stock that were "bare root", which actually had a tiny rootball with soil. The shipment of the other 4 plants was delayed a week by them and I'm not sure if these will be in the same condition or truly bare root. I planted the first 2 straight in the ground on friday and they aren't looking too hot now, but hopefully they turn around.

there has been some really weird weather this year with late snows and everything. That may explain the delay.

I think growing it out in a container and then planting it out in the Fall is a fine idea. You can probably get away with a 1 gal. nursery pot for a bareroot plant, but I would probably use a 5 gal. with a good chunky potting medium. That way it will be easier to knock the medium off the roots in the Fall and they are less likely to get pot bound.

Anyone think 100% turface sub irrigated would work? I could get the pine bark and granite grit at agway but it's an hour drive, and since this is a temporary planting fed using hydroponic solution, why not skip the bark?

If you're going that route, I'd look into Missouri Gravel Beds. It was a system devolped to hold bareroot stock for planting out anytime.

I saw Missouri gravel beds mentioned when reading some background about sub irrigated planters, i'll look into it more. I ask about the turface because I have 3 50lb bags of it. I have used perlite/vermiculite mixes in the past and read the turface is similar to that.

I found some pine bark mulch at lowes and sifted it through a 1/4" screen. I am getting a 1/8" screen today to sift it again.

I sifted the turface over a piece of aluminum insect screen and I'm thinking about running that through the 1/8" screen too.

I also got a couple bags of gran-i-grit at an agway that was closer to my house.

I'm going to put the 3 Aesculus parviflora in a 1:1 turface:grit mix in semi hydro (28qt black trash cans), and there is a Physocarpus opulifolius with that order I will put in the original gritty mix in a regular 1 gal recycled nursery pot.

skip1909, this year there has been some comment in other threads on "All Sport Pro" vs "All Sport" (which supposedly is the same as MVP). Did you find the "All Sport Pro" particles smaller, but perhaps more consistently sized?

Cricket1, I've never used All Sport, but yes the particles were consistently sized. I'd guess something like 10% of the material passed through the insect screen, but almost all of the material went through the 1/8" screen.

I just got done sifting, mixing, then rinsing the medium, all 21 or so gallons of it, then planting. That was much more of a pain in the neck than I anticipated! The 1:1 mix feels really heavy physically, but if you grab a handful it does have a surprisingly loose feel, and is easy to dig in. It drains nicely too, I put the wet mix in the semi-hydro container immediately after rinsing, and water was coming out of the hole in the side without me even flooding the container.

All that said, I think if I ever have to do this again, and I can't save this medium for some reason, I will just buy LECA or order the hydroponic specific version of turface online. All this sifting and rinsing is really time consuming.

I also realized that if I try to water these containers with a nutrient solution, I'm going to have to mix up like 10 gallons at a time to fully saturate the containers the way it's supposed to be done. I'm thinking about just top dressing with a solid slow release fertilizer, does anyone think that will work?

Would love to hear an answer to skip's question, "I'm thinking about just top dressing with a solid slow release fertilizer, does anyone think that will work?"

Here they are!

Most pathetic looking things right now lol, and my physocarpus still hasn't shipped.

I watered these with 1/2tsp/gal Dynagrow solution last night, which was the first nutrient application of any kind onto the medium. I might do 1-2 drops/gallon daily until they get a little bigger, then I'll go with the equivalent of 1tsp/gal per week.

The top of the mix dried out yesterday but the roots go down deep enough where it still felt a little moist. This is why I will water daily until the plants are big enough to reach the moist mix and the reservoir.

Water with plain water first and then with some fertilizer. CRF should also be used to minimize leaching but you can run into problems if you use more than 2-3#N/cuyd.

Nil, do you think pH adjusting the water is necessary. I have well water, pH 7.5 with high-ish silica, Mg, Ca, 1.5ppm iron and a little manganese. I'm running an iron oxidizing filter and sediment filter but i haven't had the water tested post-treatment. It still comes out higher than pH 7 post treatment but was around 6.5 after adding 1/2tsp of the nutrients to 1 gallon.

If it's not over 7.5 I wouldn't worry about it. If it's 6.5 with the nutes, you're good.