AusBonsai

I got this information from Matt Ouwinga some months back and decided to give it a go. The idea is to grow (hopefully) a good radial distribution of roots. Matt uses washers to achieve this and I added a wider dimension by using aluminium flashing. I got the seedlings recently and kept back a few for root grafting on existing trees. I cut the flashing into disc shapes and made a centre hole in it. I then added a washer using liquid nails, threaded the seedlings through this and planted in styrene boxes. The discs were then covered up with 2cm of growing mix.

It will be interesting to see the progress of this in the coming growing season. I will keep you posted even if all fails.

looks interesting ash

i reckon this could be used for most deciduous or evergreen tree too. probable not conifers though??

Ash
Matt taught us that the small outside diameter of the washer is advantageous over the larger diameter that you have created as in other methods such as a saucer. The reason being there is less chance of one root becoming dominant over the others. The smaller diameter of the washer increases the chances of all the new roots being equal in strength.

Hey Jamie last time we discussed this here we concluded it would work on almost anything.

Jamie wrote:looks interesting ash

i reckon this could be used for most deciduous or evergreen tree too. probable not conifers though??

Agreed on deciduous. Matt went on at a later date using aluminium plates much wider than a washer as an experiment. My local aluminium fabricator had just shipped his scrap off so I used the flashing. The holes in the washers are much smaller than that of a CD.

Matt was experimenting with the aluminum for group or clump settings so he could put multiple holes in the one oval disc and the distance out to the edge is still much much closer than you have done here.
Many others have been doing this technique but what Matt specifically did different was using the washer and he specifically stated that it reduced the risk of one root making it to the edge of the disc before another heading down into the soil and becoming dominant before the others made it to the edge.
As this was an issue I found affected a percentage of the ones I did, I thought it was great advice.


This works the same way an airlayer does except not as brutal so anything that you can air layer on and more will work with this. Conifer included.

Ash thanks for showing this, i can see the sense in it and will follow it with interest. Good luck!

Why not use a large glazed terracotta tile under the plant you are feild growing, That way the roots will grow around the tile before they go down, hence good root spread.

Hey Mick
You can use almost anything even wood. Peter Adams uses a saucer with a hole in the middle to strangle the tree as it grows and a bunch of holes around the outside to tie roots into place as they grow. I could never get the holes in the saucers even after buying the drill that was supposed to do the job.
I have since made several out of clay. But after getting the advice from Matt he suggested that Washers are simply the best way to do this and the wider the disc the more chance there is that one root will dominate the others which spoils the whole concept.
I have also made some group ones out of clay. I used a plan from a book blew it up and traced it onto the clay. My little poked tongue at Bonsai by numbers

anttal63 wrote:Ash thanks for showing this, i can see the sense in it and will follow it with interest. Good luck!

Thanks Antonio, I planted six seedlings per box, four with the discs and two with only the washers. As this is an experiment it will be interesting to find out which method works best. As the washers are on top of the disc it means that they will get the same start as if without the disc.

Awesome Ash. Can't wait to see the results!

As Bretts said, I think you can use most anything. I tried a set of seedlings with picnic plasticware from a $2 shop.... the advantage there was that it was rigid enough to put a few tie-down holes around the outside of the plate without the frustration of drilling through a tile. I like the sandwich idea and might try seedling on bottom plate, 10mm soil with lots of crushed quartz, then a top plate. Holes drilled in each plate to wire together and a few 1mm holes in the top plate for moisture/air. I'm told I mustn't forget to also turn the pot/box, as the sun favors branch development and also root development per soil temp.

Ash Barns wrote:

Jamie wrote:looks interesting ash

i reckon this could be used for most deciduous or evergreen tree too. probable not conifers though??

Agreed on deciduous.

Here is a conifer with the roots replaced by the washer thechnique. This was done by Alain Bertrand

so the washer/plate strangles the trunk and new roots develop on top of the washer/plate?

Yeah, the washer cuts in as the tree grows and it is the same as air layering the tree only I believe it is safer. I have never tried it and think selective pruning of roots may work as well if not better, time will tell if I'm correct.

Now that Autumn is upon us and the first growing season is drawing to a close I decided to re-visit my Trident experiment. The seedlings, which were supplied by Jarrod last year, were placed into two categories. One lot was for future root grafts and left in tubes with no special attention other than watering and the other batch were treated as you have seen to create good nebari and were fed with all sorts of goodies.
Same bunch of seedlings just treated differently.

Naturally, curiosity got the better of me and I just had to have a sneak peak at what lies below (as you would) so using an old soft pastry brush I gently brushed away at the soil to reveal the beginnings of what I hoped for.
I think you will agree this is a promising start to the next stage of development.

Ash