Trees in buried pots

[Than]

I am considering planting my Cussonia spicata in a big, huge, pot, buried in the ground. The reason is that it will be about 3 metres / 10 ft from a retention wall that must be protected at all costs, or else the neighbour's land will fall on me (we are on a slope and I am at the lower level).

Ι was wondering if anyone has done this and what is your experience? Any issues? Should I remove the bottom of the pot maybe to allow for the tap root to go down and improve drainage? I am thinking of a really big pot, perhaps 20+ gallons (90 lt).

[hinovak]

Have you considered bamboo barrier? I just wonder if trees health is going to decline in those confines over time. I don’t know much about the tree you are planting, but bamboo barrier works pretty great at keeping bamboo roots in check, which are about as invasive as it gets, so maybe you could run some of that in a trench in front of retaining wall.

[Than]

10 minutes ago, hinovak said:

Have you considered bamboo barrier? I just wonder if trees health is going to decline in those confines over time. I don’t know much about the tree you are planting, but bamboo barrier works pretty great at keeping bamboo roots in check, which are about as invasive as it gets, so maybe you could run some of that in a trench in front of retaining wall.

You're actually right. It's a pvc barrier, right?

[Silas_Sancona]

W/ 10ft of space between the suggested wall and where you're looking to place the desired tree, that should be a decent amount of space for it's root zone.

While the roots on these can be somewhat aggressive, esp. if babied instead of grown hard,   If the wall between you and your neighbor above was constructed right ( Should be, if they don't ever want it to fall down )  it should have a solid, deep ( 2 - 2.5ft -at least-, if i remember right ) concrete footing, w/ the wall itself possibly reinforced w/ rebar, which would also deter any roots that might wander toward it / lessen the chance of roots that did bump into it from breaking the wall.

Being that you're on a slope, majority of any surface roots would follow where the best moisture is,  ...down hill.

Cussonia spicata don't get that large  ..quickly at least, anyway ( unless hurried ), ..so it's footprint ( = outward, surface / near surface root spread ) shouldn't really exceed it's given canopy height / spread   ..Compared to a tree that generates a very aggressive, close to the surface root system that often exceeds canopy width, even from an early age,  ....Think of trees like Sissoo, or Ficus...  at least. 

Roots on these tend to be thick and succulent  -one reason you won't need to water much once established, which would slow down how quickly < or not > a root system might spread out.

In a pot, roots will just spiral until they escape and break free ( literally )  from the pot,   or the tree chokes itself to death..  You'll be watering a lot more to keep it alive too.

Folks who keep these as Bonsai specimens usually have to do some deg of root pruning every so often to keep their specimens from killing themselves.

If it decides that it won't be killed / won't be forever locked up in a pot, roots will tear the pot to pieces as they escape via the drain holes..  In that case,  since the roots are now free to wander where ever they wish,  kind of pointless to have planted it in the pot, in the ground to begin with, right?..

From what i've read and heard from others, these don't transplant well after planting.

The other thing w/ stuffing a pot bound tree in the ground, it will be more susceptible to being blown over .. which just breaks any roots working on their escape -from the drain holes..  Again,  pointless if the result is a dead tree..








 

[hinovak]

19 hours ago, Than said:

You're actually right. It's a pvc barrier, right?

Yep, the pvc stuff. That stuff works surprisingly well in my experience.