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It's All About Root Health
Us gardeners tend to mostly think about and appreciate the above ground parts of plants, but most of the critical functions relating to health occur below gound. Root cells produce a large number of hormone and signaling compounds that regulate the above ground growth as well as initiating immune responses to pathogens or infections. Roots store nutrients and carboydrates from year to year and are responsible for finding and absorbing nearly the entire plants' nutritional requirements. In fact, while the roots absorb large quantities of countless minerals like Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Iron, Zinc, Manganese, Boron, Copper, and Magnesium to name just a few, the top portion of a plant is primarily focused on converting carbon dioxide into sugar using solar energy. A healthy root system is absolutely critical for maintaining plant vigor, and the growth rate and success of a plant is primarily based on the state of the root system.
With proper growing conditions the root system will be quite extensive on even young seedlings.
Air Pruning Containers Produce Superior Plants
Damage Caused By Standard Nursery Containers
For decades the industry standard of growing in plastic containers has left millions of plants with inferior root systems that significantly impacts the long term health of trees. When plant roots hit the smooth wall of a container they will begin to follow the edge and wrap around over and over, tangling with other roots and forming what is known as root circling. When a plant is then potted up or planted in the field it will struggle to establish new roots outside of the bound root ball. Because new root development is primarily from the youngest growth, almost all of the trees' future roots will be developed off a circling structure similar to a spring. This leads to poor plant stability and can eventually lead to the tangled root mass girdling itself, causing a significant decline in health and eventually the death of the tree.How Air Pruning Works
Plant roots can be directed to grow into openings in the container walls which exposes the growing tip to the open air, causing it to stop growing and form a node. The root will then start to produce new root tips from the tip and about four inches back, causing a proliferation of root branching. As these tips are directed to air holes the process will repeat, causing continued branching and tip development of roots pointing outwards from the stem instead of circling around the container walls. Roots grown this way will have a large number of tip buds that are ready to grow as soon as the plant is put into the ground, allowing for significantly faster establishment and stronger growth. This also works on the tap root system when used on the bottom of a container.
The amazing number of taproot buds waiting for ground contact on this air pruned seedling.
Why We Propagate In Air Pruning Containers Before Field Planting
By starting plants in air prunig containers they develop a well-branched root structure around the crown of the tree, an effect that is difficult to achieve in standard field growing conditions. Trees started in field seed beds will frequently produce deep tap roots and long lateral feeder roots that are mostly lost when the tree is dug. But air pruned transplants produce a dense mass of roots near the base of the tree and so a large number of fine feeder roots will be present when the tree is dug the following year.
While air pruned roots bud back behind the tip, mature roots that are manually pruned will mainly branch out only at the location of the cut.
Sample seedling with air pruning
The large biomass of roots on a one year seedling in a root pruning container.
Sample seedling without air pruning
Most of the roots were cut when this field sown seedling was harvested (this was the state of the seedlings we received from a wholesale grower, needless to say few of these trees produced top growth for the next two years)
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