It seems you have already grasped your mistake, but all is not lost. Tapla, Al guru of root pruning has many posts on correct root pruning. Do a search of his posts, or he may find you. Calistoga Al

From 32-cell rootmakers to 4" pots to 1-gallons. The one gallons are painted on the insides of each pots with marine paint which includes copper in the paint itself. This paint prevents the circling of roots and keeps them going down.

Thuja x 'Green Giant' roots grown this way:
{{gwi:348974}}

Boxwood grown as described:
{{gwi:639671}}

It's all in the roots and you're 100% correct whether for citrus or anything else: oak, pecan, pawpaw... all plant which are 'supposed to be grown' in long tree tube containers. Well that's non-sense. Furthermore, the fibrous root system will once again produce a tap root for those trees that notoriously are known for their long-tap-roots when re-planted in nature.

Establishment for difficult to establish plants is increased to highly successful levels from systems of growing that create heavily fibrous root systems.

Dax

I let the tap go as deep as possible with what I can provide. If you are going to plant them in the ground, don't prune. If they are to be containerized then you need as fibrous of a root system as possible. This will allow the maximum root node in the minimum size container. You will be responsible for all the feed and water your tree need. This is as close to hydroponics you can get with the tree in a pot with a good medium.

If you are containerize them, read what others have to say. I do not root prune but pot up then in the ground they go.

A picture goes a long way if you can provide a few. I personally would like to see what you have. Here is a seed grown tangerine tree in the ground in Cincinnati, OH.

Pictures show everything

Steve

I just have seedlings right now, mostly about 3" to 4" high - I think a couple may be getting on toward 5". The tap roots at up-potting were as long or longer than the top growth. Very little side root development.

These will have to be containerized permanently as M. koenigii is a tropical and I'm not in the High Sierra desert climate. I haven't done containerized trees since the premature death of my bonsai decades ago so I've totally forgotten how to treat them.

What can I put them in that might help them to develop fibrous root systems, if anything? I'm not sure standard root pruning would be all that helpful, given M. koenigii's dislike of frequent interference with its roots.

I have totally forgotten what little I ever knew about root pruning containerized trees, else my poor little seedlings wouldn't be in this situation now, LOL!

What you are doing is out of my league. You will have to do root pruning but you will have to ask others. Check out root pruning containerized citrus trees on the citrus forum. There is plenty of literature.

I'm just learning about rootmaker systems and air pruning (just over the last week). I don' t have any experience, just what I've read. Seems to me, you need to do this system, since you don't need the tap root system. If rootmaker doesn't have a pot your size, then you should do what Dax said and make a pot your size. I didn't realize that marine paint had copper in it (which makes sense now). There is also a product called Microkote which you can paint on your pots. I heard it's expensive. The advantage to the "paint on" system is you can use your own pot and there is less drying out issues, but then again maybe more root rot issues.
If you do it, you should report back to us. My next repot of my mangos will be this.

Van

This post was edited by vanman23 on Sat, Dec 6, 14 at 13:33

Well I ended up planting these guys in fabric pots and - 4 years later - they are doing GREAT. Those that survived, that is. I planted some in a Growstone/peat mix and some in a gritty-like mix. They're all in Growstone/peat now. The longer it took me to get them out of the gritty-like mix, the shorter they are now (STUNTED). The only ones I lost were in the gritty mix.

I've got flowers! I hope for fruit but - dropped to 42F last night, so I may see blossom drop instead. I guess we'll see.

Growstone #2. And I don't know the ratio any more. When I first started using it 4 years ago I paid stupidly close attention to exactly what I was doing. I've since forgotten ALL of that, LOL! Now I just mix it 'til it looks "right".

Since then all sources of suitable bark (for potting media, not for mulch) have disappeared and I'm now out of the last of the "good" bark. From now on (unless and until I move somewhere where I can get good bark again) it's down to just the peat and the Growstone. I will have to buy a bagged potting mix to get any bark at all, and those are mostly peat and perlite these days. I may not have any choice but to go that route - bagged mix plus Growstone.

I got one of those plants, bought from Logee's many years ago. This sucker been through hell and it is still doing good. I don't even know why i bought this thing. It has been in pots, out of pots in the ground back in pots, it is 4 feet tall. Right now it is in a 5gl rootmaker pot.

The rootball is large, barely fit in this 5 gl pot.

Oddly enough, I bought one from Logee's around 2009. It turned up toes and died almost immediately. I suppose I should have contacted them about a replacement but it was a really difficult time in my life. My dad had just died after I had been caretaking him for about 2 years, I was working on a doctorate, and I had a crapload of medical problems of my own that resulted in total disability within the year. Which, of course, took about THREE years to get the gubmint to acknowledge. So I had no income at all for about 3 years, then about 1/5th of my pre-disability income to live on.

Since then, being on disability, the Logee's prices were exorbitant when compared to my income. I got the seed for these SUPER cheap, once I finally found someone who could get them to me while they were still fresh and viable. That alone took 6 or 7 years.

These poor plants went for 3 months or more, along about xmas of 2016, without being watered once, during a bad period for my health. They all survived that, though the ones in the Growstone mixture survived it better. Since then I have not been up to schlepping them outside every time the temp gets above 50F as I did in my previous residence - which it does the majority of the winter here, but then they have to be schlepped back in again because it drops to below freezing again over night. Don't have the energy to move 20+ plants in and out all fall/winter/spring as I was doing initially.

Also unlike my previous residence, I don't have grow lights set up here to keep them under over winter. So they just get whatever light comes in through the (floor length, so that helps) windows, which don't even face due south here (I had a south facing patio door and built-in window ledge that got GREAT light where I was before and a grow light set up). And it is later in the spring - nearly summer here - before the night time temps are reliably above 50F. So they are getting WAY less light than they were before.

And yet - except for a handful that were still in the gritty-ish mix - they continue to grow and thrive. They ARE tough plants.

I have a weird too-small-for-a-room, too big for a closet "room" that I'm going to turn into a plant room this winter. It's about 4.5' x 6'. Then I'll just keep them under lights again over the winter. Well, fall through late spring given how long it stays cold at night here at this elevation.

When I finally move from here - I expect to move clear across the country as early as this spring, or next (if this spring, I WON'T be turning that room into a plant room) - I'm going to have a tough time giving ANY of them up, but tough as they are, I doubt they would survive a 3 or 4 day trip in the back of a moving van. I'm going to have to leave most of them behind.

Zensojourner, so sorry to hear about your health and yet you have a great attitude about doing what you have to do to keep going. You should be very proud of yourself. You make do with what you can. I respect that.

What state do you live in? If you say Wyoming, I would be miserable. Have you seen how long their cold lasts? How warm it can be by day and then how the temps drops over 50 dgrees in the day? It's crazy. If I didn't have a passion for plants, I suppose I wouldn't mind living anywhere, or even in a home with so little light. I hope you get to move if that is what you want. And it seems you miss your old place. Good luck in everything. It must stink running on tough times like that. You will always have us here to spend time with when in need)

zensojourner you’ve managed to do quite alot on what little you had especially considering the tough period with your father and your own health, 20+ curry trees! And most still alive. It’s understandable you wouldn’t want to lug them across country with you. They’ve been such tough fighters though, it might be worth it to try bringing 1 or 2 with you on the trip over. Do they make seeds easily? Because if you’d rather not carry the extra weight of your trees, maybe you can start them from seed again but from your own trees this time! I’m only hopeful about that because I don’t know anything about the curry plant but I do hope it’s a possible alternative for you