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Root growth in a container nursery

(Click on photographs for more information-suggest starting with 1)

Roots on trees in their natural environment normally grow to well beyond the edge of the branches. Roots are obviously restricted to a huge degree when grown in containers. Without specially designed containers and regular root pruning (i.e. when potting into a larger container), severe root defects develop as roots wrap around the outside of the root ball. Some of these containers are illustrated and described in the photographs and text in the table below.

See: More examples of container types

1

circling roots
abundant circling roots

2
potential girdling root
potential girdling root
3
stem girdling roots
more stem-girdling roots

4
good quality root system
good quality root system

5
good quality root system
good quality root system
6
air pruning container
air root pruning container
7
high temperature killed roots
high temperature kills roots
8
variety of containers
a variety of container types
9
trees in different container types
trees from different container types