I've just returned from holidaying in Mallorca. When I was there I
noticed that quite a lot of people had small trees in pots. Shops were
selling seeds that they said could be grown in pots. They were not
described as dwarf trees or suitable for bonsai but were described as
suitable for containers.

When I got home I looked the trees up on the internet and found that
some of them grow quite large. Now I'm wondering if the trees will
simply stay small if they are kept in containers or if I will need to
apply bonsai methods to keep them small.

I believe that keeping trees in containers can stunt their growth but
on the other hand I think they may just become pot bound.

If I need to apply bonsai methods how do I do this? Am I right in
thinking that you let the tree grow for a couple of years and then
prune it back to about half its lenth together with pruning out large
roots to encourage a large number of small roots instead. Do I then
repeat this process each year, pruning back most of each years growth
to just a couple of buds?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

By the way the tree seeds I purchased we
-an Olive tree called olivio mallorquin
-Chamaerops humilis (European fan palm)
-Washingtonia filifera (Californian fan palm or cotton palm)
-Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm)

Martin

spoonbill wrote:

I've just returned from holidaying in Mallorca. When I was there I
noticed that quite a lot of people had small trees in pots. Shops were
selling seeds that they said could be grown in pots. They were not
described as dwarf trees or suitable for bonsai but were described as
suitable for containers.

When I got home I looked the trees up on the internet and found that
some of them grow quite large. Now I'm wondering if the trees will
simply stay small if they are kept in containers or if I will need to
apply bonsai methods to keep them small.

I believe that keeping trees in containers can stunt their growth but
on the other hand I think they may just become pot bound.

If I need to apply bonsai methods how do I do this? Am I right in
thinking that you let the tree grow for a couple of years and then
prune it back to about half its lenth together with pruning out large
roots to encourage a large number of small roots instead. Do I then
repeat this process each year, pruning back most of each years growth
to just a couple of buds?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

By the way the tree seeds I purchased we
-an Olive tree called olivio mallorquin
-Chamaerops humilis (European fan palm)
-Washingtonia filifera (Californian fan palm or cotton palm)
-Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm)

Martin

The true olive is in genus Olea. I can't find anything about
Olivio mallorquin.

The palms can be grown in a large pot or other container for many
years. With their roots confined, they will grow very slowly.

I have a Washingtonia filifera in a 12-inch pot on my front
walkway. I dug it out of a flower bed as a "volunteer" seedling
more than 10 years ago. It never has more than 4-5 leaves at a
time.

I root-pruned it once a few years ago so that I could renew some of
the potting mix. It recovered quite well. Palms have adventitious
roots; that means their roots all form from the base of the plant
without any taproot.

The major problem is that a stiff breeze will tip my palm, plant
and pot together. A larger pot might solve this problem, but I
don't want to block the walkway.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at URL:http://www.rossde.com/garden/

David Ross wrote:
spoonbill wrote:

I've just returned from holidaying in Mallorca. When I was there I
noticed that quite a lot of people had small trees in pots. Shops were
selling seeds that they said could be grown in pots. They were not
described as dwarf trees or suitable for bonsai but were described as
suitable for containers.

When I got home I looked the trees up on the internet and found that
some of them grow quite large. Now I'm wondering if the trees will
simply stay small if they are kept in containers or if I will need to
apply bonsai methods to keep them small.

I believe that keeping trees in containers can stunt their growth but
on the other hand I think they may just become pot bound.

If I need to apply bonsai methods how do I do this? Am I right in
thinking that you let the tree grow for a couple of years and then
prune it back to about half its lenth together with pruning out large
roots to encourage a large number of small roots instead. Do I then
repeat this process each year, pruning back most of each years growth
to just a couple of buds?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

By the way the tree seeds I purchased we
-an Olive tree called olivio mallorquin
-Chamaerops humilis (European fan palm)
-Washingtonia filifera (Californian fan palm or cotton palm)
-Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm)

Martin

The true olive is in genus Olea. I can't find anything about
Olivio mallorquin.

The palms can be grown in a large pot or other container for many
years. With their roots confined, they will grow very slowly.

I have a Washingtonia filifera in a 12-inch pot on my front
walkway. I dug it out of a flower bed as a "volunteer" seedling
more than 10 years ago. It never has more than 4-5 leaves at a
time.

I root-pruned it once a few years ago so that I could renew some of
the potting mix. It recovered quite well. Palms have adventitious
roots; that means their roots all form from the base of the plant
without any taproot.

The major problem is that a stiff breeze will tip my palm, plant
and pot together. A larger pot might solve this problem, but I
don't want to block the walkway.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at URL:http://www.rossde.com/garden/

Thanks for the advise.

So keeping them in pots will slow their growth rate just because the
roots are constrained.

One of the palms though, is known to be a particularly fast grower. If
it was still growing too fast, after all I hope to be able to keep it
in a relatively small pot for decades if possible, can I further reduce
the growth rate by pruning the roots as you did? I presume that I
cannot prune the stem because I've only just realised that palm trees
usually only have one stem, rather than branching, so I'd probably just
kill it by pruning it.


Martin

spoonbill wrote:

David Ross wrote:
spoonbill wrote:

I've just returned from holidaying in Mallorca. When I was there I
noticed that quite a lot of people had small trees in pots. Shops were
selling seeds that they said could be grown in pots. They were not
described as dwarf trees or suitable for bonsai but were described as
suitable for containers.

When I got home I looked the trees up on the internet and found that
some of them grow quite large. Now I'm wondering if the trees will
simply stay small if they are kept in containers or if I will need to
apply bonsai methods to keep them small.

I believe that keeping trees in containers can stunt their growth but
on the other hand I think they may just become pot bound.

If I need to apply bonsai methods how do I do this? Am I right in
thinking that you let the tree grow for a couple of years and then
prune it back to about half its lenth together with pruning out large
roots to encourage a large number of small roots instead. Do I then
repeat this process each year, pruning back most of each years growth
to just a couple of buds?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

By the way the tree seeds I purchased we
-an Olive tree called olivio mallorquin
-Chamaerops humilis (European fan palm)
-Washingtonia filifera (Californian fan palm or cotton palm)
-Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm)

Martin

The true olive is in genus Olea. I can't find anything about
Olivio mallorquin.

The palms can be grown in a large pot or other container for many
years. With their roots confined, they will grow very slowly.

I have a Washingtonia filifera in a 12-inch pot on my front
walkway. I dug it out of a flower bed as a "volunteer" seedling
more than 10 years ago. It never has more than 4-5 leaves at a
time.

I root-pruned it once a few years ago so that I could renew some of
the potting mix. It recovered quite well. Palms have adventitious
roots; that means their roots all form from the base of the plant
without any taproot.

The major problem is that a stiff breeze will tip my palm, plant
and pot together. A larger pot might solve this problem, but I
don't want to block the walkway.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at URL:http://www.rossde.com/garden/

Thanks for the advise.

So keeping them in pots will slow their growth rate just because the
roots are constrained.

One of the palms though, is known to be a particularly fast grower. If
it was still growing too fast, after all I hope to be able to keep it
in a relatively small pot for decades if possible, can I further reduce
the growth rate by pruning the roots as you did? I presume that I
cannot prune the stem because I've only just realised that palm trees
usually only have one stem, rather than branching, so I'd probably just
kill it by pruning it.

I pruned the roots of my palm only to fit it back into the same pot
after replacing some of the potting mix. The roots had grown so
much that the tree was being pushed up, out of the pot.

Any reduction in the rate of growth from root pruning will be only
temporary. The palm will produce new roots very quickly and resume
its growth. Eventually, it may break the container apart.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at URL:http://www.rossde.com/garden/