Dan: It's nice to hear from you once again! I've missed your boundless
wit. ;-) Happy New Year!
I'm wondering, however, what Dr. Carl Whitcomb will think of
Vance's "patented" planter with these features. Last I knew, Dr.
Whitcomb held the patent on the air-root pruning container, in addition
to writing the book on it, literally.
You can read about them in his book, Plant Production in
Containers, ISBN 0-9613109-1-X, published by Lacebark Publications,
Stillwater, OK, 1984.
Alan Walker
http://bonsai-bci.com http://LCBSBonsai.org
Home of the National Champion LSU Tigers!!! Geaux Tigers!
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Avrin
Hey, Gang! I'm still here, just lurking more these days than debating!

In a message dated 1/5/2004 1:02:40 PM Mountain Standard Time,
writes:
Vance Wood, the Mugo Man, has a "patented" planter that he developed a
few years ago, using the idea of oxygen entering the planter from all
sides and bottom, similar to the colandar.
More specifically than the standard colander, a rice strainer
(still basically a bowl with lots of holes) is great as a training pot
and the holes are smaller than most colanders. The roots are air pruned
when the tips grow out of the holes and dry out, thus forcing "back
budding" along the root. The result:
absolutely phenomenal feeder roots where you want them - closer to the
trunk.
When root pruning times comes along, you have so much fine, feeder
roots you can prune without worry that you are removing feeder roots and
leaving only thick roots. I have gotten to the point that I can take a
tree that has been growing in a rice strainer for a year or two and take
it for a root
pruning/repotting demonstration without even lifting it out to see the
condition of the roots. The rice strainer is always full of fine feeder
roots when the time comes to pull the tree free. This is how the roots
always seem to look in those great Bonsai Today demonstration articles
where they prune the roots seemingly impossibly short but still have
feeder roots close to the trunk. As you can tell, I'm totally sold on
the idea and have seen the results with my own trees for years now.
Good luck!
Best Regards,
Daniel Avrin
No one under 17 admitted without a parent.

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