Pot planting cycads

[JubaeaMan138]

was curious if anyone has any experience with planting there encephalartos in the ground in large size pots 15 to 25 gallon. A respected grower told me he planta all of his encephalartos like that. I can't remember the reasoning or if there was anything special that needed to be done but I do remember he told me it increased growth rate and health of the plant anybody do this out there?

[5150cycad]

I know of a guy that plants all of his Encephalartos in containers, however, he cuts the bottoms out before they go in the ground. I can say that all of his stuff looks great and very healthy. I personally don't see the benefit of planting this way as opposed to letting the roots expand and do their thing, however if what he says is true, I am always open to trying it out, especially if it speeds up the growth.  From my own experience, Encephalartos seem to grow a lot faster when they are planted directly in the ground as opposed to being planted in a pot. I would like to hear others comments as well. 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

This doesnt make sense to me unless he is looking to dig /transplant them later on. 

[JubaeaMan138]

You know thats exactly what I thought. The only benefit I seen to this was being able to easily remove these from the ground to sell or move. But as 5150 said the nurserymans plants were definetly the best looking cycads i've ever seen. I await more comments on this I hope to hear first hand experience ! I'm very tempted to try this out 

[Palm Tree Jim]

Perhaps his soil was sub par and this was his way of fixing that.

And that is a guess.....

[Palm Tree Jim]

11 hours ago, 5150cycad said:

I know of a guy that plants all of his Encephalartos in containers, however, he cuts the bottoms out before they go in the ground. I can say that all of his stuff looks great and very healthy. I personally don't see the benefit of planting this way as opposed to letting the roots expand and do their thing, however if what he says is true, I am always open to trying it out, especially if it speeds up the growth.  From my own experience, Encephalartos seem to grow a lot faster when they are planted directly in the ground as opposed to being planted in a pot. I would like to hear others comments as well. 

Agree B.

[Palm Tree Jim]

9 hours ago, JubaeaMan138 said:

You know thats exactly what I thought. The only benefit I seen to this was being able to easily remove these from the ground to sell or move. But as 5150 said the nurserymans plants were definetly the best looking cycads i've ever seen. I await more comments on this I hope to hear first hand experience ! I'm very tempted to try this out 

Another valid point.....is he removing them from the ground to sell later on?

[Mark lasvegas]

I have heard that the roots of cycads don't like the temperature shifts, and that planting them in the ground, with or without pots, aids in keeping the temperatures in a smaller range.  Example, a pot getting direct sunlight can increase root temperature a lot, esp in hot climates.

[Tracy]

On 9/14/2017, 8:24:24, JubaeaMan138 said:

The only benefit I seen to this was being able to easily remove these from the ground to sell or move. But as 5150 said the nurserymans plants were definetly the best looking cycads i've ever seen.

After reading the string, I didn't ever see a response to the question as to whether these were plants which he plans to dig in the future and sell or if there is some purported benefit to keeping them in the pots while plant potting them.  You do stabilize the temperatures by putting the pots in the ground versus not putting them in the ground, but if you don't plan on moving them in the future, my limited experience is that they speed up once allowed to expand their roots.  Can you clarify?

I'm also curious if it is the same grower I'm thinking of, because the gentleman I'm thinking of also has Encephalartos in the ground without containers which he doesn't intend on selling.