I found this interesting.... anyone tried something like this?

My firefox shows no links, but if that is an air pruning container, my vote is yes!! YESS!!!

Edit  I have a lot of wine grapevines in root pruning containers, and it's amazing when you move them up... the mass of roots they make!

Suzi

This product looks like it might produce a more extensive root system on rooted fig trees and cuttings.  I wish this man would have washed off the soil on those two plants so we could see what's really going on in the soil, and to show the differences between the two root systems.

Interesting....

Frank

I agree with Frank. The whole while I was watching I was hoping at the end he would wash the roots bare to get a true comparison.
"gene"

I think the point he was trying to make is that you don't get the root strangulation that you normally see when the plant gets root bound due to excessive circling of the roots round and round the rootball.  This could lead to less manuel root pruning every year or two.  Both plants looked very healthy after 6 months.

Microkote is part of a family of products that supply mainly calcium and copper , but other minerals calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc : http://www.microkote.com/microkote/

The product is suspended in water based paint and supply the soil layers around the perimeter of the pot with a concentration of the minerals.  If you look at the other examples you will see a root ball concentration in the center of the pot vs around the edges, the strong concentration of the chemicals on the surface of the pot and surrounding soil keeps the roots "focussed in vs out so its not a gift rather a different way to manage roots.  the plants do grow stronger, mainly because of the recidpe of nutrients for the root system. The research showed that mainly the copper is the main cause of providing stronger roots and a "better" root ball, the other nutrient provided growth and stamina.  I have used it on nursery stock to keep young stock in pot longer and healthier without root bounding, many fruit trees and vines  such as mulberries and grapes can have very aggressive roots and this can help develop a more balanced root ball the first year. Many fruit tree nurseries  need a little help developing better root systems in the first two years and this is where I have seen this product used.  I would not consider this for long term use for figs in production years, but may try an experiment on a couple of my young rooted ones that have strong growth to see if the root ball is "better" or just redirected.

If this product works as it is shown, I would think someone sell the pots already coated. If not, someone could make a killing selling them. It cost him 10 cent a pot, but if a large company did this my guess would be 1 or 2 cents. It could add a few years of not root pruning. Worth a try.

The same company does sell pots already coated, look at the link in my earlier posting