I am wondering if anyone has tried these Air Pots? If so do you find trees grown this way have a fuller root system than trees grown in traditional pots? 

Wondering how much it cost. Looks awsome and makes sense. I want one. Thanks for the video

http://air-pot.com/garden/product-category/original-air-%c2%adpot/

Kind of expensive, but could be worth it if I works as good as they say it does. I might order a few, to compare growth and fruit production, vs regular plastic pots.

Yes i want a couple. Theres a video of how to put them together. They ship them flat

If they work the way they are suppose to this would be a good deal 17" x 100 ft roll thats allot of pots http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rootmaker-Rootbuilder-II-2-material-100-ft-RBII17H-air-pruning-tree-planter-pot-/301689089929?hash=item463e122f89:g:Q9gAAOSwMmBVprrX

 

I suspect it does work.  However, fabric pots also work pretty well at accomplishing the same thing.  For anything 15 gallons or larger, I've found it is very hard to remove a tree from a fabric pot. 

How would you make a pot out of a roll?  How would you fasten a length into a pot without it coming undone?  Staples?  Seems hard to do.  Maybe overlap a couple of the sets of holes and then thread zip ties through them?

Then how would you fasten the bottom?  What would the bottom be?  landscape fabric?  Plastic?  Does it matter? 

Anybody have any experience with this stuff?

I don't see how you'd get a tree out if you needed to repot without disassembling it.  I guess if you needed to repot you could just cut down the side or cut the zip ties.  Then it should be simple to take the pot off, rather than trying to take the tree out of the pot.

By my calculation, you could build about 50 pots, 33 gallons each, with this size roll.  Of course you'd also have to come up with something for the bottoms, so that would mean more expense.  I wouldn't recommend using this stuff for the bottoms or the roots would grow right through and into the ground and you'd never be able to lift the pot.

So $340/50 = $7, maybe a little more if you include bottom material.  That is similar to what a fabric or large heavy duty pot of the same size costs. 

I would like to try it out but don't want to commit to buying so much of it.

Would rather try it on a few pots first as a trial. 

drill holes in a standard pot to try   I never read that air enhances growth  if it did commercial growers would use air injection into the soil and plastic pots would not have replaced terracotta (porous) if it offered any economic advantage. for more roots use root hormone, that will enhance root growth

Rob- It would take at least 5 ft of that material to make one 25 gallon 17" x 20" container so about $17-18 each plus the bottom. I can see the benefit of longevity being worth something, and the ease of repotting. I end up kicking the root pouches to get the trees out. If you have some rafters in the garage or something hanging them with straps tied to the trunks makes it much easier.

One of my best growers last year was Conadria in the 5 gallon size air pot, however it didn't really take off until I completely buried the pot in a pile of wood chips compost.  Roots went out in every direction.  I buried it like the rest because the sun really heats up the black plastic in my neck of the woods.  

Hoosier, you're right.  My math was off, I was using diameter instead of circumference.  Duh. 

Yeah, they seem really expensive and not significantly better than fabric pots.  In fact, on their website they sell the fabric pots and inserts.  So they must work OK too or they wouldn't sell them.

I do something similar to the root pouches when it's time to get them out. I whack them with a shovel or similar.  Did a 15 gallon the other day that was pretty compacted and it was definitely some work.

I'm hoping that once I get to 30 gallon fabric pot the repotting will be necessary infrequently if at all.

I sort of tilt the tree to the left and then kick down at the corner with my right foot like I am starting an old motorcycle. Then work my way around the container until the bottom is loose.

I've used them for years.  Just search for and you will see.