I'd be curious as to how they respond by summer end! Do you have to water those ones more often? I love the looks of the black ones..I wanted to buy some. Are they expensive and where did you get them)?

I do have to water the more often. Also, when I water, the water comes out of the holes on the sides, so I have to make sure the soil is properly drenched.

I got them for @2.50 each at http://rootmaker.com/retail/24. 

But if the trees are not branching, wouldn't it be preferable to grow in a regular pot? Vladimir, can you post closer-up shots? I can't see as well from those you posted.

It will be interesting to compare the roots when you next repot. Please keep us updated.

I have heard about these too and thought they sounded like they would be perfect for citrus... interesting results on your experiment so far.

That is really strange. One would think that the one in the air pot would be drastically growing at an incredible rate...

Interesting. Vladimir, is that a smoker back there?? Do you keep bees?

Yes, that is a smoker. We are down to one hive which you can see way in the back of the picture. We lost one hive over the winter to varoa. We are getting a nuc next week. Two hives is about all we can handle right now.

I lost one last fall, but the other made it through the winter strong. I replaced the other...like you, two hives is about all I can handle at the moment. I've had as many as five. How long have you had bees? This is my 7th year with them...

This will be our third year. We are still newbees.

This is what I plant my citrus and fig trees in. It is the bottom and 1/3 from the bottom that the sog and rot hide

Pots and containers · More Info

Sweetlee #4 · More Info

when the tree gets to big I just tip upside down and slide the tree out and reuse the bucket. Pealing that steroid-icly corrugated container from you tree could prove to be "ARMAGEDDON" to your tree.

Hi Steve. You are an inventive guy! Am I correct in saying that you do not use gritty mix or 5-1-1 but instead use some sort of soil mix? If so, then I can see how using your set up would allow you to use your soil mix to grow the beautiful trees that you grow and not get root rot.

Although I have not done it yet, I don't see a problem when it comes time to removing the trees from the Rootmaker pots because the pots come apart easily.

I started out with using 50% top soil dug from my back yard with 50% compost from my compost pile (black platinum) by volume. My sweetlee tangerine, Hardy Chicago fig, and poncirus trifoliata trees grew exceedingly well in this mixture. My seed grown Meiwa kumquat I used 1 part dust free crushed porous construction bricks, 2 parts coarse sand, and 3 parts compost. The roots of Meiwa were very many and robust but the top kept dieing back down to about a foot tall. I found out later that spider mites killed it. My figs are all in 100% compost/potting soil mixture. My fukushu's from seed are in ground for 2 months. My only surviving sweetlee is in grown and survived 2 winters. The first winter was in a green house and last winter it was covered with a bed sheet when the temperatures dropped below 20F. We had 4 nights down to 7F and 2 day with highs of 15F

I'm against those pots because if used inside, it will be an ideal nursery for fungus gnats. So t I recommend fabric pots, and completely reject classic pots.

Problem with growing trees in fabric pots is root rot.

Steve, I was just looking at your pictures of your rooftop garden and can't find your post now so I am posting here. Your rooftop garden looks so beautiful and also nutritious! Such beautiful fruits and vegetables you are growing up there and the new archectural additions you are adding are also very attractive. It is amazing what you grow up there. I loved looking at the pictures. Do you have a warning sign below to beware of hanging monster watermelons? Yikes! They are huge!

Cory

Cory My picture are open to the public. Here are the links

plants on rooftop (house plants)

original seed grown Meiwa kumquat

Seed grown tangerine tree for rootstock

If you click on my forum name you'll go to my profile. My modern citrus is displayed in my Houzz photos

We planted some grapevines in root pruning bags, knowing we were going to move and we wanted to take them with us. We were amazed at the amount of roots inside the bag. No circling at all! I am a big fan of root pruning. As far as no branching goes, I would just pinch the growth tip. That will cause branching.

I've seen similar on instagram,curious.

https://www.instagram.com/airpotusa/

Well, one tree (in center) finally put out one branch a week ago. The one on left still has not. The one on right is one of three that have branches. Big difference: plants in Rootmaker pots have no or one branch vs those in regular pots that have numerous branches.

That seems like it is some sort of auxin response. Like branching roots use up a chemical that induces branching of the top growth, but circling roots do not. But I really am just brainstorming.

My 2 best seed grown tangerine trees did not branch until 3 feet tall They did very well with each having about 80+ feet of linear trunk and branch growth in 2.5 years.sweetlee#3

Hang in there. It will branch.

Nil13, I like your idea.

I decided to pot-up the seedlings
because some of them in Rootmaker and in standard pots had roots showing at the
bottom. As shown in the photo below, the
two trees in the Rootmaker pots lack the larger white roots seen in the
standard pots and appear to have more small fibrous roots. Prior to
transplanting from the standard pots, I untangled the larger roots at the
bottom and spread them out, thus increasing the overall length of the root ball
about 3 fold.

In conclusion, I will not use Rootmaker pots for two
reasons:

No or only a few branches compared to trees
grown in standard pots.

Smaller root system. The larger white roots seen
at the bottom of the standard pot, when untangled, turned out to be rather
long. I believe that these long roots will give rise to fine roots and root hairs.
And in the end, the root system in the standard pot will be more developed than
that in the Rootmaker pot.

By the way, this experiment was continued by transplanting trees
from Rootmaker pots into 1 gal. Rootmaker pots http://rootmaker.com/retail/21 and
trees in standard pots into 1 gallon nursery pots https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095ZD6M0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. All pots were painted white to minimize root
damage from high temperature due to solar heating.

standard pot vertical wall 30 gallon 2 feet diameter 18 inches deep

Cuban shaddock · More Info

this is one of 2 rescue Meyer lemon trees that grew nicely into Cuban Shaddock trees

Here is an update:

They were started from seed in May (?) 2015. This is what they looked like last May.

This what Plants 1, 2 & 4 looked like on December 14, 2016 (I gave away plants 3 & 5):

In the first pictures the nursery pots plants are bushier with shorter distance between leaf nodes. I would take the nursery pots over the root maker. It is clear that plant 1 out did the nursery pot by some 6 inches. It does speak nicely of the root maker pots but I agree the sample is too small

The standard pot bareroot samples show clear j-root problems that would have to be cut out before transplanting out.

Nil13, those J roots were cut out before transplanting.

until your tree reach about 2 feet deep the citrus trees roots head down. I believe that is why the pros use such deep 4 inch by 4 inch pot. Growing in anything less deep is an infringement on the citrus tree's living rights.

6b Steve

poncirusguy, you said "until your tree reach about 2 feet deep"...did you mean until the roots reach 2 feet deep, or the tree reaches 2 feet high?

The roots reach 2 feet deep. I seam to remember reading that 90% of the roots are in the top 2 feet of soil.6b Steve