I don't think they have a website, but here is the phone#
Anderson Die & Manufacturing
2425 Se Moores St
Portland, OR 97222 Map

(503) 654-5629

Make sure to tell them the size that you want because I know they make a ton of different molded products.

Good Luck!

I'm only a year into bonsai, so please bear with me.

I understand the benefits of using screened planters/collanders/pond baskets when it comes to developing fine root feeder systems. However, I was wondering whether people here thought that they could also be used successfully as grow pots as well?

Although I have some stock in the ground, I have a lot of stock in pond baskets of various sizes (generally, when I repotted this past spring, I up-potted trees into slightly bigger pond baskets from the smaller nursery pots the trees were originally in). I used them for range of species, including maples, pines, boxwoods, junipers, etc. I don't have all that much general horticultural experience, but the growth I've been getting this year on stock in the pond baskets seems to have been pretty good, even as compared with stock in more standard nursery containers. One limitation on the pond baskets is the size range - the largest I could find was 16"x16"X9" - ideally, I'd like something a little less deep, so those Anderson Flats look like a really great solution.

If anyone had any thought as to whether you can use pond baskets as grow pots, I'd be very interested in hearing them. Most of my stock is still on the smaller side, so I'd like to maximize their growth potential where I'm not able to plant them in the ground (limited space in yard).

Thanks!

Dale Cochoy wrote:Here are some great training boxes I bought a bunch of and I've used for years. They come in stacks of 25 ( I think it was) at about $5 each.
They measure 15 1/2" X 15 1/2"

Hey Dale, you're a wealth of great suggestions! First the Structural Plastics shelving units (which I love by the way) and now these Anderson Flats. Thanks so much!

Here are the KADON flats I mentioned. Still around..
They are expensive but large rectangles with mesh ( holes) bottoms. I have some of these I got from MY teacher in mid-80's, they last FOREVER. Much thicker material than the Poly-Flats in fact.

http://mnsinc.cc/osc/product_info.php?m ... 27d12c5546

Dale

P.S. BTW, sorry I didn't get the info up fast enough about the polyflat contact. I didn't see the "notify me when a reply is posted" box

fwhou wrote::? Will...I used home-built grow boxes for many years. One thing noticed which is NOT in the best interests of any resident tree is the leaching of nutrients by rotting wood on the inside walls of the box.
The problem is that the rotting process pulls some of the nutrients in the soil away from the roots, effectively "starving" the tree. In my case a very old collected azalea showed clear discoloration in it's leaves, indicating stress of some sort. When the plant was lifted from the box to examine the roots, the problem was revealed.
Funny thing though...I also grew a "shore pine" in the same sort of grow box...it seemed fine. My only explanation was that somehow the mychorriza had something to do with "buffering" the root system from the rotting box leaching effect.

Have you heard of this from other folks?
Flex / 4MAAT

It probably had nothing to do with the Mychorhiza but the PH. Azaleas need a very acidic soil, around 4.0 to 4.5.

Back to the discussion...


In my article I mention that in a perfect world a bonsai would go from the ground, into a growing box, into a screen sided planter, and then finally into a bonsai pot. Of course, collected stock may skip the ground stage and in some cases the growing box stage as well.

Each environment has advantages but these advantages can be diminished if the order of the stages is changed, I will try to explain this in the following condensed examples to eliminate any confusion.


Senario 1

You come across a great deal on 30 trees, all three years old, and all in nursery liners. Your goal is to develop all aspects of the trees in as short as time as possible. Therefore, the steps you would take would take full advantage of different environments, while not interfering with the development of any parts of the trees or diminishing any development in the process. Your goal is to get fully developed and near finished bonsai into pots as short of time frame as possible.


Step 1

Place all the three-year-old trees into the ground. This is done so that maximum growth and trunk development can be achieved. Nothing beats the ground for overall growth rates and for thickening trunks. Movement can also be created while the trees are in the ground by wiring, scarring, or chopping. Such growth occurs because the trunk and the roots are allowed to grow without restraint.

On deciduous trees, branching is not a concern now, as most can develop branches later. The main concern here is developing trunk diameter and taper, this is done is a series of growth periods, followed by successive chops.

On conifers, sacrifice branches can be left on to help with the trunk thickening; other branches can be cut back as needed to keep foliage close to the trunk. Movement and height reduction still can be created with chops, letting a lower branch become the new leader.

If development takes longer than two or three years, you will have to lift the tree and perform root pruning in order to keep the roots manageable and to ease transplanting when the time comes.

Ground growth is not the time to worry about branch placement, ramification, or detailed styling; the quick, rank growth obtained in the ground will quickly negate any accomplishments in these areas anyhow. The smart grower will have trimmed the nebari before placing it in the ground and spread out the roots so that the rapid expansion of roots, and the length they grow will begin nebari development while thickening the base of the trunk.


Step 2

Once the trees have developed nice trunks with thickness, taper, and movement, they will be transplanted into shallow growing boxes, which are just an inch or two larger than the root mass collected, after root pruning.

Now the trees are growing in bonsai soil, or a large percentage of such. The nebari has been trimmed, pruned, and arranged again and now sets in a shallow container where it can develop more. However, the roots do not have the freedom of the ground, they are now restricted, this will slow down growth somewhat and the roots will circle the box in time.

All growth is slowed now, slower than ground growth, but still much faster than growth in a bonsai pot.

Now after the trees become accustomed to their new environment, it is time to start branch development, rough styling, carving, and begin inducing back budding and ramification. These things were not possible in the ground as they would have been counter-productive to the growth and besides, the rate of growth in the ground would have negated any such actions.

Once the rough styling is done on the trees and development of ramification, back budding, and deadwood styling has been done. Once the tree has fully recovered from all these assaults, it is time for the next step.


Step 3

The trees are moved into screen sided planters. Upon lifting the trees from the growing boxes, the roots have circled the training box or begun to. It is time to do another root pruning, again paying special attention to the nebari, which by now should be developed nicely, due to allowing roots to grow out freely in the ground, and semi restricted in a growing box.

In a screen-sided planter, the roots will now self prune themselves, each time a root reaches the screened walls or bottom, it will die back (not circle) and induce fine rot development closer to the trunk. This is the main advantage of these planters, to create a mass of fine feeder roots close to the trunk.

At this time, fine styling, shaping, ramification, and all the fine detail work can be done on the trees.


Step 4

You now have 30 bonsai with developed nebari, branches, trunk, ramification, and most of the fine detail work has been accomplished.

When they are removed from the screen sided planters, they will have a mass of fine feeder roots, all that is required is the pruning of this mass, as well as any thick roots that are left. They can be safely potted into appropriate bonsai posts at this time and final styling and maintenance can begin once they have recovered.




Now let’s think about this….what if we took the trees out of the screen-sided planters and then put them into a growing box? What would happen is that all the fine feeder roots would be given room to grow out, uninhibited and unrestricted. They would elongate, thicken, and eventually begin circling the box. In short, they would revert and all the fine feeders would be lost. These fine roots would them have to be created again in the future.

By following the steps above, the trees take a logical path to development; each step meant to develop different parts of the tree, while not negating what was already developed.


Collected trees may skip the first step and go directly into a training box, or in some cases, directly into a screen sided planter, depending on what developments are, or are not needed. The same could be said for nursery stock, or any stock. But the point is that there is a rhyme and reason for the order of the steps, one that I hope I described well.

I started using these about 15 years ago and have been really happy with results

http://www.rootmaker.com/index.php

Gerald

Hi Gerald I got some fine knit fabric bags from a nurseryman many years ago. They cost me $8 each and I found them to be great for growing trees in. If sat on the ground above soil I found that fine feeder roots would grow through the bottom of the bag to take up nutrients, invaluable for the tree's health and trunk growth. Very easy to move to another area as the fine feeder roots just snapped off and you could start over again. The amazing thing about these bags is they never deteriorate in any way.

Ash

Quite right on the bags Ash, they do seem to last forever. Planting the tree in a bag and then planting the bag in a very large nursery container is a great way to use the bags and get good results. I have the bags in one gallon and five gallon size.

I also really like the square one gal and round 3 gallon pots (called 'rootmaker pots'). The design allows constant air root pruning, thus no spiraling of the roots as well as good fine root development. I actually use these alot more than the bags.

The tree stays healthy for many years in the small pot without repotting, this greatly enhances the aging of the tree with minimal growth and the tree is also easy to care for and work on.

I've had JBP, shimpaku and procumbens nana in some of these pots without repotting for ten years.

BTW Someone above mentioned growing JBP in colanders in Japan. They were doing this when I lived there in 1980, as well, screened wooden boxes and other such things using the same idea were being used by many growers.

It seems to me the point of these techniques is to avoid growing in the ground, but trying to recreate the inground benefits without all the common drawbacks of in ground growing (excessive growth, difficult to work on).

I finally stopped growing in the ground all together about 8 years ago. But I do plan on doing some specialty growing of JBP in/on ground over the next years. pot in pot also offers some interesting opportunities for bonsai development.