Effects of Retention Time in Nursery Containers and Root Pruning at Planting on Landscape Establishment and Anchorage of Three Tree Taxa

Tree lodging in landscapes during storms has been attributed to root architecture in nurseries. Objectives of this study were to evaluate influence of retention time in three progressively larger nursery containers, and root pruning at landscape planting, on establishment, anchorage, and root architecture in the first four post-planting years. All trees were retained in three progressively larger containers (11, 57, and 170 L) for a total of 32 months, with varying retention times in each. Retention time had little influence on post-planting xylem water potential for Acer rubrum and Ulmus parvifolia. There were few differences in aboveground growth among retention times. Except for Acer, retention time had a negligible influence on anchorage. Root pruning by shaving 170 L root ball periphery when planting had no impact on growth except for one post-planting year. However, root pruning invoked a dramatic reduction in circling and descending roots four years after planting caused by root deflection in the final nursery container. Although root pruning had no influence on bending stress required to winch Magnolia trunks to any degree of trunk tilt, approximately 10% more bending stress was required to winch Acer trunks up to five degrees tilt when root balls were shaved at planting.