It depends on the vigor of that particular plant.

Otherwise, generally speaking if you have a nice set of radiating roots, planted at the proper time I'd think that plant would catch up quicker to b&b than container.

I wish more nurseries did bareroot by me. I know its limited to certain species though.

Someplace in my photobucket I have an image from a study Harvard did regarding growth by five or so years after transplant.

What I took from it is to transplant what you can get at least 90% of the roots of for best success. Mind you the hardware stores are full of big trees in tiny pots amd with great care they can live througj transplant and thrive. Just the effort and percentages work against them

I have taken to liking 3 foot tall transplants in big pots lol. Bare root while dormant is the next best thing. Too many hands involved in b&b plus I need to dig a big hole! AND provide lots of water.

Oh, and a two foot japanese maple transplant may not catch the ten foot $1,000 one but watch a fast growing sycamore or metasequoia catch up!

I am not sure there is a definitive answer to this question. It depends on the species, the size of the plant in question and the care taken in harvesting or storage. For example, conifers or other evergreen material is seldom offered bare root - too much chance of desiccation and lack of complete dormancy puts these types of plants, if of any size, too much at risk.

Same with container grown material. Anything can be grown in a container but how well it is able to establish in the ground once planted is highly dependent on its care IN that container. The practice of potting up is not uniform and the longer a tree remains in a nursery container the greater the chances it will have root issues.

If I were comparing apples to apples instead of apples to oranges, I would probably opt for a properly tended containerized plant over either bare root or b&b as that is the only nursery process that offers a complete root system. It stands to reason that a plant with 100% of a root system is going to "take" faster than one with a marginal one (b&b) or a partial one (bare root).

But if you are looking at the exact same plant type, smaller beats larger almost every time regardless of nursery production method. Smaller size/caliper trees establish faster than their larger caliper cousins, start replacing or expanding their root system sooner and therefore start putting out top growth faster.

I planted a 2' sycamore stick bareroot with very few roots in spring of 2010. It is now over 15' tall. I know it's growing well and have the peace of mind that the roots are not a mess. I'd go small cheap bareroot with this species personally

John

I am not sure there is a definitive answer to this question.

-===>>>

there will be ... if hippie plants one of each.. and keep a photo journal for us ...

what do you say hipster???

ken

ps: i would bet on the stick getting established and outgrowing a huge transplant ... given perfect water the first year.. and water in drought the second year.. free range after that... and good mulch ...

I agree with everything gardengal said, but would add that I wouldn't really say B&B is a "marginal" root system. In some cases, it had been greatly reduced. "Partial" root system seems more accurate for that, while bare rooting can still have most of the roots, they've just been stressed by washing. That sounds more like 'marginal' to me. Also given that the issues with container stock are even more serious than I once believed (knotted roots deep within container root mass) I would almost have to cynically point out that correctly planting a containerized plant briefly turns it into a bareroot plant! I bought a couple Abies firma a few years ago and I knew they had been severely pot bound. I got a good price on them because of it. When I planted them, I very aggressively untangled and cut the roots. There was hardly any soil left. But I was able to spread a few of them out over about 3-5 feet from the trunk. Yes, this involved a lot of digging...and backfilling with only what was dug. So in essense this containerized plant became a bare root plant when planted. Well, they established incredibly quickly and sailed through the hot summers of 2011 and 2012 w/o needing any watering after the first year. One of them has grown almost 3' just this year. I actually think doing that: not only having all of the plant's pre-sale roots, but also "recreating" a prototype root spread as though the plant had always been there, is probably the absolute best way. It's just the horticultural industry can't say that because they know most people won't take the time. It makes it seem like you are having to do with the work instead of them: 95% of people just want to pop the blob in hole and get back to whatever "reality" show they were watching.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 18:40

I'll take the convenience of a container anytime over the other methods. I can plant a container grown tree in the summer while B&B and bare root will have to wait for fall or spring to avoid a lot of babysitting.
Mike

Here is my sycamore today. It also has seed balls for the first time. The tree is 6 years old.

{{gwi:386260}}

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Fri, Jul 11, 14 at 9:59

Since b&b harvesting can remove as much as 95% of the root system, I'd say that was pretty "marginal". And since it is often used as a production method for larger, more mature trees, not only are a lot of larger roots being severed or eliminated, pretty much ALL the feeder roots are missing, given the ratio of rootball to tree age/height. And as bare root trees are generally still quite young and small, their root systems are proportionally smaller and therefore far less is removed or cut off when these are harvested.

Hmmmm.......5% of a root system versus maybe 50%? Not sure of other's definitions but I'd term the first marginal and the second partial any time.

I live in an area of Mid Missouri that has a lot of tree farms. People let these grow until they are 15' or 20' tall then b&b them in the fall and sell them (mostly in St. Louis).

One guy had to replace all of the evergreens growing on his place near his pond. He used Maples that were growing in rows on his property. He did this 2 years ago and this year he had to replace 15 of the 45 trees he transplanted last year. Already there are about 7 of those that are already on the way out. More to follow as we get into our dry season.

I'm sure he gives them NO water.

I have a Red Maple that I put in the ground as a 3 gal. tree and I gave it little water. It now about 15' high from about 5'.

In the 25 years that I did landscaping I always recommended going with smaller plants as opposed to the instant gratification of a big tree, with most of it's root system removed.

Depends on the root system...

Large trees grown in rootmaker products will establish much faster than others grown in conventional smooth sided containers. I once planted 30g Montezuma cypress at the neighborhood park that was grown in Roottrapper fabric bag and the root system was excellent. It started growing like a weed soon after I planted it...