The "Nao Pot" Bonsaify video

[Maiden69]

@Eric Schrader has been doing a few videos of garden tours and this one of Andrew Robson's garden was hilarious at the beginning. All I hear was "Nao pot, Nao pot, Nao pot..." but what strike me the most was the "cuttings" trees, including the Telperion JBP.

I posted about the Root Pouch brand on his channel, I have used "lesser" brands and would recommend Root Pouch brand to anyone considering pouches for their in-ground or even above ground growing above colanders any day. The biggest point that Andrew brought up, and it is one that Root Pouch emphasize is that the bag needs to be changed to a slightly bigger one every 2-3 years, just like you would up-pot a nursery container. The biggest benefit is that you will have a plethora of small feeder roots instead of the huge circling mess. There will be some that will circle, but not as many as when you use a regular pot.

 

[badatusernames]

Nao deserves all the praise he gets. I think I was misunderstood on here awhile back because I talked about sticking with Japanese pots for the time being, but it was really more a function of wanting to rein myself in as a newbie and get a feel for things.

Really nice to see the bags, I’m hoping to snag at least one of his pots at Nationals.

 

[Maiden69]

Nao deserves all the praise he gets.

Really nice to see the bags, I’m hoping to snag at least one of his pots at Nationals.

I only have one... but because when I had the funds he was entirely closed down at the time. I was able to snag one that I kinda "suggested/in my mind commissioned" from his wife Mary. But will definitely buy more once everything normalize again.

 

[Ruddigger]

At this point, whenever I need a pot for a tree I talk to Nao.

 

[Shogun610]

When I needed more pots for recent projects I hit up Nao. I’m going to his table first thing I do at Nationals

 

[roberthu]

@Eric Schrader has been doing a few videos of garden tours and this one of Andrew Robson's garden was hilarious at the beginning. All I hear was "Nao pot, Nao pot, Nao pot..." but what strike me the most was the "cuttings" trees, including the Telperion JBP.

I posted about the Root Pouch brand on his channel, I have used "lesser" brands and would recommend Root Pouch brand to anyone considering pouches for their in-ground or even above ground growing above colanders any day. The biggest point that Andrew brought up, and it is one that Root Pouch emphasize is that the bag needs to be changed to a slightly bigger one every 2-3 years, just like you would up-pot a nursery container. The biggest benefit is that you will have a plethora of small feeder roots instead of the huge circling mess. There will be some that will circle, but not as many as when you use a regular pot.

Could you elaborate on using Root Pouch to grow seedlings above ground or above colanders? I have been using colanders but want to give the Root Pouch a shot.

 

[pandacular]

I posted about the Root Pouch brand on his channel, I have used "lesser" brands and would recommend Root Pouch brand to anyone considering pouches for their in-ground or even above ground growing above colanders any day.

I have a few trees in generic grow bags at the moment, and would love to hear some elaboration about what makes the Root Pouches superior. Build quality and durability, perhaps? How many years/repots do you get out of yours?

I currently have my bagged trees sitting on benches or on soil in raised planters, so I'm essentially just using them to air prune, as I don't have space to bury them. At some point this fall, I'll re-do my planter boxes with pine bark mulch and bury the trees in for winter.

 

[Maiden69]

Could you elaborate on using Root Pouch to grow seedlings above ground or above colanders? I have been using colanders but want to give the Root Pouch a shot.

Colanders are great, but they dry out too fast. Root Pouch in a pot-in-pot configuration will give you the same root pruning that a colander do, but will also maintain moisture at a higher level, especially good for hotter environments. The pic below is my ficus in a 2 gallon Root Pouch, surrounded by perlite inside a 3 gallon nursery can. They develop a lot more feeder roots, growing faster.

April 2022

Ficus at the end of the top shelf.
The JBP kabudachi is also in a Root Pouch surrounded by pumice in a pond basket


JUL 2022

I have a few trees in generic grow bags at the moment, and would love to hear some elaboration about what makes the Root Pouches superior. Build quality and durability, perhaps? How many years/repots do you get out of yours?

I currently have my bagged trees sitting on benches or on soil in raised planters, so I'm essentially just using them to air prune, as I don't have space to bury them. At some point this fall, I'll re-do my planter boxes with pine bark mulch and bury the trees in for winter.

As explained, Root Pouches do not air-prune like almost every other pouch on the market. The only other bag that prunes by entrapment are the Root Maker pouches, but they are about 2x or more the price of the Root Pouch brand. The only ones I have used are the black and the grey. They are rated at 3 years in-ground.

With a regular pouch, if you place it in the ground roots will actually grow through the fabric. With Root Pouch, you may get a few roots that will grow through the seams of the pouch, but never through the fabric. Every two years (depending on the species and amount of roots when it was moved into the pouch) you "cut and peel" the pouch and move into a bigger one.

This JBP seedling from spring 2021was planted in this 1 gallon pouch on April 2022, and because of how fast the bag filled up I moved it into a 2 gallon March 2023.

March 22


March 23


After a year in-ground, notice the very few escaped roots through the seams at the bottom, none on the sides of the fabric.


Out of the bag, notice the finer roots with no circling thick roots, including at the bottom of the root ball.




Same with the Kabudachi

August 21
slip potted into Root Pouch surrounded by pumice into a pond basket


March 23
Pond basket removed


Root Pouch removed

 

[pandacular]

Thank you, this is very helpful. What is the added benefit of the pond basket with pumice? An added stage of air pruning? I can see that your trees seem to have grown quite fast with this method, but I'm the type who likes to understand the "why".

 

[Maiden69]

Thank you, this is very helpful. What is the added benefit of the pond basket with pumice? An added stage of air pruning? I can see that your trees seem to have grown quite fast with this method, but I'm the type who likes to understand the "why".

pot-in-pot, allows for more moisture inside the bag, helps maintain moisture when you have weather in the 100's for more than a month straight. Not necessary when planted in the ground.

 

[pandacular]

Good to know. What do you think about planting in bark mulch beds? I see one of your images has several pines planted thus, and I was wondering what the motivation and results of that technique are. This configuration most closely mimics what I have available to me.

It's also very clever that you fold your pouches down, might give that a shot next time I work the roots on one of my bagged trees.

 

[Maiden69]

I fold the pouches so the root ball is not too high and I can move it easily into a pot.

As far as the pine bark mulch, where I live there is no access to cheaper substrates like pumice. If it was readily available I would have used that. The other option available here would be crushed decomposed granite, but that would be a mess to clean up if I decide to move the beds around. If perlite didn't fly away I would have used that as well.

 

[roberthu]

Colanders are great, but they dry out too fast. Root Pouch in a pot-in-pot configuration will give you the same root pruning that a colander do, but will also maintain moisture at a higher level, especially good for hotter environments. The pic below is my ficus in a 2 gallon Root Pouch, surrounded by perlite inside a 3 gallon nursery can. They develop a lot more feeder roots, growing faster.

April 2022

Ficus at the end of the top shelf.
The JBP kabudachi is also in a Root Pouch surrounded by pumice in a pond basket


JUL 2022





As explained, Root Pouches do not air-prune like almost every other pouch on the market. The only other bag that prunes by entrapment are the Root Maker pouches, but they are about 2x or more the price of the Root Pouch brand. The only ones I have used are the black and the grey. They are rated at 3 years in-ground.

With a regular pouch, if you place it in the ground roots will actually grow through the fabric. With Root Pouch, you may get a few roots that will grow through the seams of the pouch, but never through the fabric. Every two years (depending on the species and amount of roots when it was moved into the pouch) you "cut and peel" the pouch and move into a bigger one.

This JBP seedling from spring 2021was planted in this 1 gallon pouch on April 2022, and because of how fast the bag filled up I moved it into a 2 gallon March 2023.

March 22


March 23


After a year in-ground, notice the very few escaped roots through the seams at the bottom, none on the sides of the fabric.


Out of the bag, notice the finer roots with no circling thick roots, including at the bottom of the root ball.




Same with the Kabudachi

August 21
slip potted into Root Pouch surrounded by pumice into a pond basket


March 23
Pond basket removed


Root Pouch removed

This is very helpful! Thank you so much for sharing! The Root Pouch seem like a space saver for someone like me who enjoys growing trees from seedlings.

 

[roberthu]

I fold the pouches so the root ball is not too high and I can move it easily into a pot.

As far as the pine bark mulch, where I live there is no access to cheaper substrates like pumice. If it was readily available I would have used that. The other option available here would be crushed decomposed granite, but that would be a mess to clean up if I decide to move the beds around. If perlite didn't fly away I would have used that as well.

would you use turface outside of the pouches? I have a couple of bags left after switching to other soils.

 

[NaoTK]

@Eric Schrader has been doing a few videos of garden tours and this one of Andrew Robson's garden was hilarious at the beginning. All I hear was "Nao pot, Nao pot, Nao pot..." but what strike me the most was the "cuttings" trees, including the Telperion JBP.

I posted about the Root Pouch brand on his channel, I have used "lesser" brands and would recommend Root Pouch brand to anyone considering pouches for their in-ground or even above ground growing above colanders any day. The biggest point that Andrew brought up, and it is one that Root Pouch emphasize is that the bag needs to be changed to a slightly bigger one every 2-3 years, just like you would up-pot a nursery container. The biggest benefit is that you will have a plethora of small feeder roots instead of the huge circling mess. There will be some that will circle, but not as many as when you use a regular pot.

Thank you all for the shout outs! Please stop by and say hi at Nationals

 

[Maiden69]

Thank you all for the shout outs! Please stop by and say hi at Nationals

You're welcome, I wish I could attend... maybe sometime in the future will definitely try to meet you!

 

[Maiden69]

would you use turface outside of the pouches? I have a couple of bags left after switching to other soils.

Yes. As a pot-in-pot definitely. Another option for a pot-in-pot could be DE earth, or NAPA 8822. Perlite would be the cheapest I think, I used pumice once because it was all I had at the moment.

 

[roberthu]

Yes. As a pot-in-pot definitely. Another option for a pot-in-pot could be DE earth, or NAPA 8822. Perlite would be the cheapest I think, I used pumice once because it was all I had at the moment.

Much appreciated!

 

[Eric Schrader]

I may need to subject Nao to some filming next time I'm at his place. Lol. Would be fun to get a video of some of the process.

 

[Colorado]

I may need to subject Nao to some filming next time I'm at his place. Lol. Would be fun to get a video of some of the process.

This would be really awesome!!