Trees, Shrubs & Liners: Let’s Talk About Roots

It’s a true fact of nature: plants were meant to seed naturally and spread in the ground over the years, producing lovely natural root systems as they go.

However, all efficiency savings that can be made, have to be made and productivity must be ever advanced. Containerization is a fantastic and necessary leap forward to help achieve a smart and long-term operation.

We all know that excellent roots produce excellent plants. Excellent plants mean an excellent return on investment for growers. If a plant has numerous, vigorous and good quality roots when it is planted out, chances are it’s going to do well in the field.

If plants were never meant to grow in containers, how do we ensure our roots are second to none? It breaks our hearts to see containers get a bad name. So often we see poor trees grown in poor containers – root circling and j-rooting are all common sights, but are begrudgingly put up with because containerization is the only financially viable solution for growers.

This doesn’t have to be the case.

Thankfully, Proptek has the solution with our Pot-in-Frame growing systems that utilize our patented, industry-leading air pruning technology. There’s no mess, no chemicals and no labor-intensive shaving of roots.

The 50 Cell Pot-in-Frame (pictured) is a shining example of what happens when 30 years of horticultural and agricultural experience meets a clever mind that wants to produce the very best plants possible.

All our air pruning containers work by having ribs that direct roots to slots or holes in their cell walls from which the roots can escape. When the root is forced out of the slot into relatively dry air, its tip is desiccated or killed. Once this first root is air pruned, it loses its dominance and many secondary roots develop to replace it; these are then air pruned, and again they are replaced by even more healthy roots.

So what does this mean? In Proptek containers, very often plants will develop a mature root system earlier, and top growth has been reported to be 20%-25% greater than plants grown in other containers. Therefore, finish time is up to 33% less than with other containers. Not only are you getting 5-star plants, but you can grow them faster too – and that all helps your bottom line.

The Pot-in-Frame systems are economically advantageous, too! As the trays and pots are made from injection-molded plastic, they should last for many, many seasons. Some of our customers even have employees that are younger than some of their Proptek Trays.

There’s spiraling labor costs to consider too – with a Proptek containerized system, you can carry dozens of plants at once, but easily remove individual plants for inspection. Large parts of the process can be automated too – right from the filling and seeding to the benching and finally harvesting.

The future is containerization – ensure your trees, and your nursery, are the healthiest they can be.

For more information, visit www.proptek.com.