Tree Roots Branch in Fabric Containers But Circle and Girdle Plastic

Summary: Landscape transplants get stem-girdling tree roots from plastic nursery containers circling, not from fabric containers branching, Callery pear tree roots.

Barcham Trees, Europe's largest container tree nursery, uses white fabric containers that ease root development and transmit diffuse light: Caroline Vickers ‏@CaroVickers7 via Twitter March 8, 2017

Circling, girdling, malformed roots are associated more with black plastic than with fabric containers and augur shorter-lived transplants in urban landscapes, according to an article in Arboriculture & Urban Forestry July 2018.

Container production bolsters consumer appeal, easy handling and shipping, greater production on less land, intact root balls, longer seasonal markets, shorter production cycles and uniform growth. James E. Kleet, Anthony J. Koski and Alison Stoven O'Connor of Colorado State University in Fort Collins consider number 15 industry-standard black plastic and fabric containers. Their article Container Type Affects Root Development of Chanticleer® Pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Glen's Form') During Landscape Establishment describes fabric containers as delivering air-pruned, branching secondary roots.

The three co-authors examined lightly branched, two-year-old bareroot whips of Callery pear in black plastic, a root pouch and a smart pot May 7, 2010-October 2010.

Nursery-mixed bark fines, composted woods, dehydrated poultry waste, sphagnum peat moss and volcanic pumice furnished electrical conductivity of 3.7 millimhos per centimeter and pH at 6.8.

Averna Root Pouch, High Caliper Growing Smart Pot and Lerio plastic got trees averaging 0.69-inch (17.7-millimeter) trunk calipers (diameters) 5.91 inches (15 centimeters) above soil-tree junctures. The three-year study's six-month nursery establishment personnel had caliper and height measured monthly and 1.51 gallons (5.7 liters) supplied from drip irrigation systems every other day. They installed 27 trees in a Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) lawn on sandy clay loam with conductivity at 0.4 millimhos per centimeter and pH at 7.7.

The three researchers judged 8.82 ounces (250 grams) of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium topdressing necessary for container-planting but not for landscape-planting of circling root-, matting-, root ball integrity-scored transplants.

Plastic-, pot- and pouch-grown tree roots respectively knew 2.2, 4.4, 3.7 circling; 4.9, 4.3, 4.9 integrity; and 1.5, 4.0, 3.0 matting measurements on most-least 1-5 scales.

Three container types left no effects on branch growth; caliper; canopy width; leader growth; root:shoot ratio; shoot, leaf and total plant dry weight; or tree height. Second-year-harvested fabric pot- and pouch-grown trees manifested higher total root dry weights beyond original root balls than plastic-grown trees, at 27.3, 33 and 21.4 percent respectively. Second-year-harvested trees netted greater percentages of total coarse root dry weights within plastic-grown than within pot- and pouch-grown roots, at 77.0, 71.5 and 68.7 percent respectively.

Lower percentages of total coarse roots occurred outside plastic-grown root balls than outside fabric pot- and pouch-grown root balls, at 19.8, 25.4 and 27.9 percent respectively.

That same season, in 2012, plastic-grown tree roots presented total root ball dry weights 24 to 34 percent greater than Root Pouch- and Smart Pot-grown weights.

Pouch- and pot-grown trees queue up greater percentages of coarse roots outside original root balls than plastic-grown trees, at 32.9, 33, 32.9 and 26.4 percents respectively. Nothing retarded above-ground growth even though complete, intact systems regenerated 0.083-inch- (2.1-millimeter-) diameter coarse roots and restricted 0.07-inch- (1.9-millimeter-) diameter fine roots during three post-transplant years. The study shows that plastic nursery container-grown specimens sustain circling, matting tree roots that survive on landscape transplants and slow side growth beyond original root balls.

Stem-girdling tree roots in mature landscapes trace to tending circling, matting tree roots improperly in plastic nursery containers and to trauma after transplanting from non-fabric containers.

A 2010 study of Chanticleer® Pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Glen's Form') trees at Colorado State University in Fort Collins finds that fabric containers promote root development at the nursery and encourage healthy transplanting: The Purdue Arboretum @ThePurdueArboretum via Facebook Dec. 17, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to:
talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet;
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Image credits:

Barcham Trees, Europe's largest container tree nursery, uses white fabric containers that ease root development and transmit diffuse light: Caroline Vickers ‏@CaroVickers7 via Twitter March 8, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/CaroVickers7/status/839411747861770241

A 2010 study of Chanticleer® Pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Glen's Form') trees at Colorado State University in Fort Collins finds that fabric containers promote root development at the nursery and encourage healthy transplanting: The Purdue Arboretum @ThePurdueArboretum via Facebook Dec. 17, 2016, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=585837724958022

For further information:

Caroline Vickers ‏@CaroVickers7. "8 March 2017. "Pyrus calleryana Chanticleer - ornamental pear field grown at @Barchamtrees in the UK -- coming into bud now. Mature height: 4-7m." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/CaroVickers7/status/839411747861770241

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