| The planting season is closing in. Generally hedging | | | | worst with potted hedging plants, which are |
| and trees are planted between the beginning of | | | | typically planted in a trench that acts as a drain |
| November and the end of March. The reason for | | | | for the surrounding soil. Equally, if the surrounding |
| this is that plants move better if they are | | | | soil drains well, water can run away before the |
| disturbed when dormant - a bit like a small child | | | | plant's rootball is wetted. Then it dies from under |
| asleep on a sofa being moved to a bed upstairs. | | | | watering even though the soil around is moist. By |
| In the morning it has no memory of the move - | | | | contrast, bare-rooted hedging plants and trees are |
| indeed it has little memory of where it fell asleep. | | | | planted directly into the surrounding soil. |
| This applies particularly to bare-root hedging plants | | | | Effectively there is no "hole" to fill with water so |
| and trees (plants that have been grown in open | | | | swamping the plant is impossible, and there is no |
| ground and are then lifted and have the soil | | | | risk of the compost drying out because there is |
| shaken off their roots before being sold). | | | | no compost. |
| This article assumes you have decided on the | | | | One of the great concerns of the responsible |
| type of plant/plants you want; maybe a single | | | | container nurseryman is compost hygiene. Potting |
| species such as beech or yew, or a mixed hedge | | | | compost can contain, and be a breeding ground |
| or copse. Now the choice you are faced with is | | | | for, a number of harmful animals and diseases |
| whether to buy your hedging and trees in | | | | (vine weevil, New Zealand flatworm, Phytopthora |
| containers (pots) or bare-rooted. Today a whole | | | | root rots etc). One infected pot brought in from |
| generation of gardeners has been raised on pot | | | | outside can contaminate a nursery or indeed, your |
| grown planting (mainly for the benefit of the | | | | garden. It may not even be the supplying |
| garden centre industry). So, while there are some | | | | nursery's fault - pots standing side by side on a |
| things in favour of containerised shrubs (indeed | | | | garden centre bench can cross infect and the |
| some cannot be moved bare-rooted at all) the | | | | longer they are "on the shelf" the greater the risk. |
| advantages of using bare-rooted hedging plants | | | | By contrast, as the name suggests, bare-rooted |
| and trees are overwhelming. The purpose of this | | | | hedging stock is generally freshly lifted and |
| article is to set out the reasons why. | | | | delivered with virtually no soil attached to the |
| Bare-root hedging plants are more economical | | | | roots therefore greatly lessening the chance of |
| than their pot grown equivalents. To be well | | | | harbouring pests and infections. |
| grown a plant in a pot needs good quality | | | | We all know what a bonsai tree looks like. The |
| compost, it needs to be re-potted as it gets | | | | reason it is a perfect "miniature" of the real thing |
| bigger, it needs hand weeding, it needs constant | | | | is that its roots have been constricted - take |
| watering and it has to be moved from seed bed | | | | another look at the size of a bonsai pot - it is so |
| to polytunnel, to standing out bed and from there | | | | small that the roots it contains cannot support a |
| to garden centre display. A bare-rooted tree | | | | larger plant. That is why the tree is stunted. |
| grows happily in mother nature's soil in a field, | | | | Although not as exaggerated - the same is the |
| watered by the rain until it is lifted and sold. There | | | | case here - as soon as the roots of a plant hit |
| is far less cost involved and it shows in the price | | | | the walls of a pot its rate of growth slows. When |
| you have to pay. | | | | the pot is full of root, it stops. Bonsai is just an |
| Environmentally, container grown stock carries a | | | | extreme example of this. This stunting effect |
| high tariff. Bare-root hedging is rarely watered in | | | | applies to almost any established pot grown |
| the nursery as opposed to potted plants that | | | | specimen, but is completely absent with field |
| need irrigation if it does not rain. If they are not | | | | grown hedging and trees. They are invariably |
| watered daily, the compost in their pots tends to | | | | bigger, stronger, more vigorous and have superior |
| dry out rapidly on the sunny side and slowly on | | | | root development than the same plant of the |
| the shaded side) which leads to irregular root | | | | same age in a pot. |
| development and subsequent poor establishment | | | | Bare-root stock is easier and quicker to plant than |
| in the ground. (As an aside, it also does not help | | | | container grown. Ground preparation is simpler - |
| that plant pots are generally black - the colour | | | | for many species no cultivation is needed and |
| that absorbs heat the fastest). Still on the | | | | weeds are simply sprayed off. Bundles of hedging |
| environmental front, containers means plastic. | | | | plants are much easier to move around a planting |
| Most pots are manufactured from petroleum | | | | site than pots and the planting itself is generally |
| products - very few are recycled. Field grown | | | | into a slit rather than a hole so no soil has to be |
| hedging plants need no pots. The compost used in | | | | broken up or improved. |
| containers is at best heavy and has to be | | | | However, perhaps the most important point in |
| transported to nurseries so increasing their carbon | | | | favour of bare-root hedging, trees and shrubs is |
| footprint. At worst the same compost is also | | | | that the plants simply establish better in the long |
| peat based and its production directly damages | | | | run. A pot-bound container grown specimen may |
| already dwindling ecosystems. And then the pots, | | | | well survive and grow away when planted out but |
| full of heavy compost have to be sent to you, | | | | its root system will never recover fully from the |
| using more packaging and consuming more | | | | "institutionalising" it received in a pot. Many years |
| greenhouse gas emitting fuel than their | | | | after a pot grown tree or shrub has been planted |
| bare-rooted cousins. As an example, you could | | | | out, even when fully grown, it is more likely to be |
| put two hundred and fifty 80cm tall bare-rooted | | | | uprooted by a gale, or suffer in a drought |
| yew hedging plants in the back of a medium sized | | | | because its roots were unable to fulfil properly |
| family estate car. The same number in containers | | | | their dual purposes of feeding and anchoring. No |
| would need a 7.5 ton lorry to deliver them. | | | | such problems ever face bare-rooted hedging or |
| Container grown plants need to be planted in a | | | | trees. |
| hole big enough to accommodate the medium in | | | | So, if you are able to plan your hedge planting for |
| which they are growing. If the planting hole is in | | | | the winter months, take a tip; save yourself |
| soil that drains less well than the compost in the | | | | money and effort, be good to the environment |
| pot, it fills with water and creates the conditions | | | | and produce a better end result buying and |
| where roots rot (typically this happens in heavier, | | | | planting bare-rooted hedging, trees and shrubs. |
| clay soils) and plants die. This effect is at its | | | | |