Most plant lists say what the tree is and how big it has to be. Fewer say how it was grown, and that one line decides more about planting day than the caliper does: how much of the root system arrives with the tree, which months of the year it can go in, and what the crew has to do once it is off the truck. Every tree on our farm is grown above ground in a container. This post is what that means for you on the day the truck pulls up.

The root ball of a container-grown tree lifted out of its pot, roots running through the whole ball and out to the edge — A root ball straight out of its container on the farm. Roots run through the whole ball and out to the pot wall, and all of it goes on the truck.

What digging does to a tree

A field-grown tree spends its years sending roots well past the drip line, because that is what roots do in open ground. When it is dug, the spade takes a ball around the trunk and leaves the rest in the field. A large share of the root system stays behind, which is why a freshly dug tree spends its first season or two rebuilding roots before it puts much into the canopy, and why it needs careful watering through that time. It is also why field trees are normally dug while dormant: digging in the growing season asks a tree with most of its roots gone to carry a full set of leaves through a Texas summer.

Field-dug trees are a sound product in the right season and the right hands. The thing to understand is that the calendar and the aftercare are set by the digging, and your schedule has to fit around it.

What a container tree arrives with

Our trees have spent their whole life in a container, potted as liners and moved up through the sizes as they grow, so the roots have never been cut. The ball in the photograph above is the entire root system of that tree, and three things follow from it.

The planting window is most of the year. With the roots intact the tree is changing address rather than recovering from a dig. Container trees can be planted in most months in Texas, with the usual attention to water in the heat of July and August, so a job that breaks ground in June can plant in June instead of waiting for the winter digging season.
What you tag is what ships. You can walk the rows, put your tags on the trees you want, and those trees are loaded. There is no waiting to see how a tree takes the dig, because nothing was dug.
It establishes faster. A tree that keeps its roots starts growing new ones into the surrounding soil straight away, instead of spending a season replacing what it lost. The canopy the design was drawn around is there in the first year rather than the third.

Trees in black containers standing on strips of weed fabric in wide rows under a blue sky, each pot fed by its own drip line — Each tree in its own container on weed fabric, fed by its own drip line, with room around it for the canopy to fill out on every side.

Above ground, by choice

The containers stand above ground on weed fabric, each on its own drip line, and the rows are spaced wider than they strictly need to be. That spacing is the other half of what you see in the canopy: a tree with room around it grows out on all sides instead of reaching up for light, and arrives looking finished. Above ground also means we can lift, inspect and load a tree on any working day of the year, without waiting on the weather or the ground.

Two things a container tree asks of the crew

A container tree arrives with everything it needs to establish. The two places it can still go wrong are both on planting day, and both are in the crew's hands.

Water the ball, not just the bed. The mix in a container drains faster than the soil it is going into, so for the first season the water has to reach the root ball itself. A slow hose at the trunk, a ring of drip, or a watering bag does it. Irrigating the bed around the tree and trusting the water to find its way in is the most common reason a well-grown container tree struggles after planting.
Open up the outside of the ball, and set it high. Roots that reach the wall of a pot follow it around, which you can see on the ball in the photograph. Before the tree goes in, score the outside of the ball in a few places from top to bottom, or tease the outer roots loose by hand, so they grow outward into the new soil. Then set the ball with its top at or slightly above finished grade. Planting too deep is the other common mistake, and the tree pays for it for years.

Neither takes long. Both matter more than anything else the crew does that day.

Size, weight and equipment

A container ball is mostly growing mix, so size for size it is generally lighter than a field ball of clay, and a #30 or #45 is handled by a crew. At #65 the pot alone is a two-person lift, and from #100 up the tree needs equipment on site to set it. If the plan calls for 4 inch caliper, plan the machine. Our container size guide has the caliper and height each size produces, and every tree we grow lists the sizes we grow it in.

If the specification says balled and burlapped

Some specifications call for balled and burlapped trees out of habit. If yours does, it is worth asking the designer whether container grown is acceptable for the sizes on the list. It usually is, and the answer opens up your planting calendar and takes the digging season out of the schedule.

Come and look at the roots

You are welcome to come out to Sealy, an hour west of Houston on I-10, walk the rows and tag the trees going on your job. If you want to see a root ball for yourself, ask and we will tip one out of its container while you are here.

Before you drive, check the availability list for the variety and size your plan calls for. It is built from the same records our sales team quotes from, so what it shows today is what is in the rows today. Or send the plant list through the pricing form and we will come back within one business day.

See Today's Availability Request pricing Build your own quote

Container grown or field dug, and what the difference means on planting day