Wicker baskets as poor man's grow boxes?

BunjinEnt

Recently, I have been playing with the idea of using 100% inorganic soil and grow boxes to better refine the roots of some of my trees, increase the vigor of others and just plain grow some of the seedlings I have. Building a couple grow boxes in and of itself is not terribly costly, but a dozen or more can really set me back.

Also, there was an article in the BT Pines book that talked about using inorganics with kitchen colanders in progressively larger sizes to aid proper nebari formation/ramification and increase trunk girth. So I took a trip to several local thrift stores and found colanders (Both aluminium and plastic) for $.50 each, and coated crab boil pots for $2. Then I noticed all of these wonderfully tacky coated wire and plastic baskets for $.25-$.50/ea. Most of them were shaped like bonsai pots and could hold inorganic soil on their own or with creative screen work.

But what I found in over-abundance were wicker baskets of ALL shapes and sizes. Everybody gets them as thoughtful presents and nobody wants them afterwards except the craft-wright types. I looked for the ones that seemed to be more sturdy and treated with possible plastic coating. They should be good for a season or two and they are perforated from base to rim with drainage. Another cool thing about them is they often come in shapes, depths and sizes that mimic bonsai pots, which may aid a bit in the up-potting process?

My questions then, are:

1. Does aluminum pose a problem to the health of pines or other material that require well drained soils?

2. If so, which ones?

3. Does sturdy wicker seem to be a suitable (albeit temporary) substitute for the fancy schmancy cedar and screen or water basket grow boxes?

I would like your opinion.

Thanks,

William

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weeijk

Bunjin,

You´d better use pond baskets, they are cheap and the tree in it will build a very nice rootsystem, cause the roots will go to the outherbouds of the basket, where they come out in the light. The outher growth stops, cause of it and it will incourage innergrowth of the roots. You could use just lavagrit as soil, than the root growth will be spectacular, than the air can float freely trough which will encourage growth even better.

Hope this will help,

Wessel

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Every tree can be a bonsai, but only some will be.

Graydon

I say go for it. I am using the colander system you mentioned and found those exact colanders online at cheftool.com - but they were more expensive than what you are talking about. By the way it works great. I also use pond baskets and they work well too but use a heck of a lot more soil and the roots need a lot more trimming than in the colanders.

What do you have to lose? You should be able to get 1 year out of a wicker basket. You get an A+ for basic creativity in the face of economic challenges.

A buddy of mine uses old pallets as grow boxes. Flips them upside down, staples a mesh over the slat openings, fills with soil and there you go. Want taller boxes - nail some wood to the inside.

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BunjinEnt

thanks for the comments, guys.

Pallets are a great idea, Graydon. I'll look into that as well.

William

nsmar4211

Aluminum colanders tend to corrode-not sure if itd hurt the plants but it can block the drain holes.

Something to consider when using "alternate" grow boxes is decay. The wicker baskets will decay with constant moisture (probably won't get a year), aluminum will corrode, etc..... Now the bigger problem will come the day you go to pick up your plant and forget that said pot has decayed. Grab the handles, pick up colander, and your tree you worked so hard on falls out the bottom! Same with wicker-it'll just crumble with no warning. So if you're waniting to use someting that won't last, tie a big red ribon on it or some sort of reminder NOT to pick the pot up without supporting the whole rootball. Perhaps set it inside another container (course, there goes the idea of cheapness)...

I'm also wondering if the roots wouldn't grow into the wicker-it is a grass and would break down and I'd imagine roots would have field day growing into it.....

I'd stick with the plastic colanders (like you found, very cheap at Goodwill)... just be careful when picking them up because they can collapse and twist (I'd handle from the bottom), specially the cheap ones .

If there's a nursery nearby, you might as if they've got any unwanted plastic pots hanging around. I got a couple just for asking that looked terrible but worked just fine .

Susan and crew

BunjinEnt

Thanks Susan! Some of the baskets also have coated wire in them. Good point about Aluminum colanders and the holes corroding to closure. Guess I'll keep that one for rinsing and crushing moss...

William

nsmar4211

Might wanna reconsider the ones with wire on the inside. The wire will rust-won't necessarily hurt the plant, but will probably hurt you. How? Imagine you got to repot and there's nice rusty dirty pieces of wire that the roots have grown around. You probably won't see all of the wire and will end up stabbing yourself in the process of straightening out the roots. Or a couple of pieces fall on the ground in the repot area and you or a pet or a kid steps on one. Tetanus shots are not fun!! Besides, they won't be much support once they rust out.

Something else I just though of, when using lightweight pots like that there's a higher chance of the plant getting knocked over by wind, pets, wildlife, clumsy humans, rain, etc.... I've knocked over a few myself that were in plastic pots but the ones in clay pots tend to stay up. Clay also makes a lot of noise when it shatters on the ground (stupid lizards) and lets me know I need an emergency repot LOL.

Believe me, I'm all for cheap grow pots-you just have to make allowances in your routine for the materials used

nsmar4211

Here's one of my trees in a cheap grow pot . What happened was I didn't bring a pot when I was styling it...realized it needed rootwork, eyeballed the plastic bowl I brought soil in... drilled a few holes and viola! grow pot! Plus it was easy to poke a hole for the guy wires......bowl was $1 at dollar store, about a foot across

Susan and crew

Attached Images

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Wen

I agree with Weeijk, pond baskets are durable, inexpensive, and effective. I also use big flat cement mixing tubs for very large collected trees. I drill many holes in the bottom for drainage, some in the sides (when needed) for wiring.

-W