Potting on Part 2

 Potting on Part 2

Part 1 dealt with potting on cell grown bought in trees, Sessile Oak and Douglas Fir. The same is true for seeds I have sown  and pricked out into cells. 

Eucaltypts being potted on from cells.

Photo on Left  Eucalyptus dalrympleana being potted on from 200ml cells. They are being potted in into home made extended "cells". The idea is to get the trees to have a deeper and larger root system. They then, hopefully, can better survive any dry conditions which might occur during establishment.  

The Eucalyptus seeds had been collected from trees in the woods. Eucalypts can readily hybridise. Bought in seed produces the odd seedling which is obviously different. That I have described these as E. dalrympleana means the seed came from a tree that had dalrymleana like characteristics. The card tubes are made from card my wife has been given. Using card I am hoping I will be able to plant the whole tube making planting easier, and it will rot allowing the roots to spread out.  If it rots too quickly the trees may have to be planted out prematurely. These trees are smaller than ideal and will be brought  inside so they can grow over the winter.

Tiawania going into disposable pint pots.

The other seedlings currently being potted on are Taiwania cryptomerioides. This is an obscure tree which is hardly grown in the U.K and will be the subject of a post on its own. These and the E. dalrympleana were sown late spring. The Tiawania  are not going to be big enough to plant out next spring and will give me something to plant the following season.

The pint pots had to be bought for these, they have had holes drilled in the bottoms. I didn't have sufficient ones to reuse. There are also a few "industrially compostable" ones   collected at a festival recently. About 7 years ago I collected used "compostable" pint pots from an event at Westonbirt. The idea being to plant the whole pot, they were used for at least three different trees over three years and they were still as sound as the day they started. I have planted a couple of the new compostable pots into larger pots to see if they breakdown quickly enough for whole pot planting , am not hopeful.

"Compostable" plastic and paper cups
 being tested.

The mixture used for potting on is about 1/3 compost, 1/3 sand and 1/3 soil from Pit Wood. For the conifers  Ericaceous compost and lime free sand is used. I try to get the soil from an area where similar trees have been growing. The idea being that relevant mycorrhizal fungi will be present. It is also cheap!