Bareroot trees into Rootmakers?

[catscratch]

Any value to the idea of planting 1yr old bareroot seedlings into Rootmakers for a yr. I figure it gives me the chance to baby them for a summer and then plant them in the fall. Planting from Rootmakers seems to be pretty stress free to plants. Any chance it's going to help alleviate the yrs of "sleep, creep, leap" cycle of planting trees?

 

[Fishman]

While it would probably work, I am not sure how much of an advantage it would be 3-5 years down the line. It really depends on how much rain you expect this summer. The root system would definitely improve over the summer. I bought some Dunstan chestnuts that Walmart was closing out at the end of May. I immediately put them in grow bags and left them in my driveway over the summer. When I planted them last month the roots were very fiberous.

Plant a few in Rootmakers and a few directly in the ground and see what happens.

 

[weekender21]

I transplanted a few 7 gallon chestnuts into 10 gallon grow bags July-October last year. I wasn't sure when I would be planting them at the time and mainly wanted to prevent circling that would likely occur in the plastic pots.

The only problem I see with the grow bags is that they will require much more water than if they were in the ground. Grow bags dry out pretty fast by design and will require daily watering during hot summer months.

Like Fishman said, the only way to know for sure is to try both this season and see what happens over the next few years.

 

[catscratch]

I planted persimmon seed last yr that are currently 8 inches tall and the diameter of a pencil lead. I realize this is probably reasonable but I'm feeling the urge to get there quicker. Like the Doglo I planted 2 yrs ago that has produce both it's first and second yr... I think time can be "bought". I'm not sure at what cost though as I firmly believe that a taproot tree will eventually perform best with a taproot.

I think I'm going to go ahead and buy two quality persimmons to plant in my orchard and 20 bareroot seedlings. A couple of seedlings will go into the orchard and the rest will get split between spots on the place and RM's. This will give me a couple of trees to baby, several for future grafts, and some for comparison purposes between in-ground care and RM.

Thanks for the comments.