Q about group/ forest plantings

rockm

The way to control growth in smaller trees in forest is to prune them and control their growth from the top. Trying to restrict growth of the roots of an individual tree in a forest is futile and can wind up affecting the roots of neighboring trees. Dominant trees in the planting should be allowed more extension growth up top, while smaller ones should be pruned back harder. Eventually, the dominant trees will become, well, dominant, over the smaller ones.

The roots of a just planted forest should be allowed to knit together to form a single mass. This not only makes repotting easier in the future, but also forms the support for the composition. When repotting, a forest is usually treated as a single root mass, or two, or three, depending upon the size and positions of the trees. Trees in forests are usually not repotted singly.