How to dry-root trees!

5 comments

This Sunday’s project was to “dry-root” my container trees into larger containers. I have no idea why the process is called “dry-rooting” because it’s anything BUT that! {chuckle} Pictured below is the system of containers that I use for the process:

Left to right is 2 gallons of water, Garret Juice organic plant food, the tree to be planted, and the pot that it will be planted into. Pictured below is the little tree that has outgrown its’ container. It is in great condition despite the small pot that it has been in for the last year and a half:

The first step is to pour 2 oz. of the Garret Juice concentrate into the 2 gallons of water and stir thoroughly. The compost tea element turns the water a brown color:

Next, I have removed the tree from its’ container and shook some of the dirt into the new container to fill the first couple of inches and cleaned as much soil from the roots as possible.

The next step is to immerse the tree’s root ball into the root stimulator mixture in the bucket for about 10 minutes to feed the roots and help loosen some of the remaining soil:

This little root system is one happy camper right now!

While the little tree is soaking, I start preparing a super rich organic potting soil mixture starting with some rich “Erath Earth” NON peat moss soil. This stuff is GREAT! BTW, peat moss DOES NOT support biological soil activity and should only be used for storing bulbs over the winter! I use another container to mix the organic “secret formula” mix.

Pictured below is the “Erath Earth” potting soil topped with a few handfuls of “Texas Green Sand” and “Lava Sand”. The paramagnetic properties of these volcanic sands greatly enhance the natural biological activity in any soil:

The next step is to add a couple of handfuls of “Expanded Shale” to the mix. Expanded Shale is an amendment that loosens the soil and also retains moisture due to its’ great surface area:

As you run your hands through this soil mixture in the mixing process, the sands and rock materials give it a real loose and fertile feel. It is quite amazing.
The mixture will look like this:

Now I go back to my little tree that has been soaking and work the roots by hand to loosen the remaining soil. I gently unwrap any circling and girdling roots and unwrap the root system as wide as possible.

When the little guy comes out of the root stimulator mixture, it has a nice loose root structure that is fully exposed:

It is then placed in it’s new home and free roots are spread out as wide as possible:

I then poured the organic mixture that I had prepared earlier into the new pot and made sure that the little tree’s “root flair” was fully exposed as you can see here. It had been planted WAY too deep in its’ last container:

Here is the final result before the watering process.. The little guy looks pretty happy:

So, where did the water come from? Remember the bucket that it was soaking in? That bucket had native dirt plus the great “Garret Juice” mix in it and I drenched the new container with the left over “soaking mix” because it contained everything that the little tree was used to. It’s a great way to “inoculate” the newly planted tree from local parasites! {grin} :

I’m not sure if this technique works on all potted plants because I have not tested it yet, but it works on trees and “woody shrubs” like gangbusters and you will see amazing growth after just a few days! It is also a great method for planting new trees. Just prepare the tree’s “planting area” with the same organic amendments, follow the above steps, and it’ll be a happy camper regardless of size! ;-)

WHEW! This blog wore me out.. :-)

• 30 Aug, 2009
• 4 likes

More blog posts by n2organics