RoR Trident or strangler fig?
Posted: July 26th, 2021, 6:07 pm
Two years ago I got a handful of maple seedlings from Neil, and among other things, I created 5 or so RoR tridents using his alfoil technique.
From memory this seedling had minimal roots, not even halfway down the rock so I left an opening at the top of the alfoil wrap and watered it by dribbling water down the hole for its first summer.
I filled the bottom 50mm of the pot with my usual perlite, diatomite and zeolite mix, then I filled the rest of the large pot with heavy sand to apply pressure to the alfoil. I used a few layers of shade cloth to try and keep the sand away from the coarse mix below. After the first summer I watered the pot/sand as usual for the next 18months, due to the large pot and sand mix it only required water maybe once a week during summer and not at all during winter. I was concerned this meant that the sand may have clogged the mix below quite quickly but during repotting today I found that was not the case.
The roots had grown well into the coarse substrate below, but when I unwrapped the rock I found roots all over it like I've not seen with my others. There is fine root everywhere, even growing 40mm or so upwards covering the top point. I'm not sure if this is a different type of rock that the roots love, or the sand on the outside meant that there was only oxygen available by diffusing through the rock. The roots at the bottom of the pot were just as healthy, no rotting, or bad smells.
I then had the luxury of choosing which roots to remove and which to keep, sorry there aren't any pics of this, my hands were filthy, and I was too focussed on the root removal and forgot.
Any straight roots were cut, I left more small roots than I've seen other people leave, my reasoning, right or wrong, is I like the look of roots melted and flowing over the rock as opposed to 5-10 individual, larger, round roots growing over the rock. The main concern is that they all merge and minimal rock is visible in the future. I left a few bare patches to try and avoid this. Only time will tell. If I did this again I wouldn't have planted the seedling so near the top and not in such a straight line. I may be able to fix this in the future by cutting hard and getting back buds or by grafting into the roots.
From memory this seedling had minimal roots, not even halfway down the rock so I left an opening at the top of the alfoil wrap and watered it by dribbling water down the hole for its first summer.
I filled the bottom 50mm of the pot with my usual perlite, diatomite and zeolite mix, then I filled the rest of the large pot with heavy sand to apply pressure to the alfoil. I used a few layers of shade cloth to try and keep the sand away from the coarse mix below. After the first summer I watered the pot/sand as usual for the next 18months, due to the large pot and sand mix it only required water maybe once a week during summer and not at all during winter. I was concerned this meant that the sand may have clogged the mix below quite quickly but during repotting today I found that was not the case.
The roots had grown well into the coarse substrate below, but when I unwrapped the rock I found roots all over it like I've not seen with my others. There is fine root everywhere, even growing 40mm or so upwards covering the top point. I'm not sure if this is a different type of rock that the roots love, or the sand on the outside meant that there was only oxygen available by diffusing through the rock. The roots at the bottom of the pot were just as healthy, no rotting, or bad smells.
I then had the luxury of choosing which roots to remove and which to keep, sorry there aren't any pics of this, my hands were filthy, and I was too focussed on the root removal and forgot.
Any straight roots were cut, I left more small roots than I've seen other people leave, my reasoning, right or wrong, is I like the look of roots melted and flowing over the rock as opposed to 5-10 individual, larger, round roots growing over the rock. The main concern is that they all merge and minimal rock is visible in the future. I left a few bare patches to try and avoid this. Only time will tell. If I did this again I wouldn't have planted the seedling so near the top and not in such a straight line. I may be able to fix this in the future by cutting hard and getting back buds or by grafting into the roots.