Barcham Trees is totally committed to container tree production and the white container as the means of production. Years of experience and development have produced within the company a conviction shared by all staff, from Managing Director Mike Glover, downwards that the Barcham method offers the best value for money and gives Barcham customers the greatest opportunity of achieving complete satisfaction from trees planted.

The white container has been adopted and promoted since 1991 by Barcham because of the root system produced.

Alternative methods of production inevitably result in damage to tree roots when the trees are lifted from their growing site in the nursery field. Both open ground trees and rootballed trees have to be physically lifted from the soil for despatch to the end user. The root system of bare root trees even when lifted in its entirety can be subjected to desiccation and damage during transport and handling. Rootballed trees have the root system lifted with a surrounding ball of nursery soil, usually wrapped in Hessian and wire, but it has been estimated that only a small proprtion of the soil volume occupied by the root system on the nursery is actually contained in the rootball. Root balls are also heavy to handle and transport.

The root system produced in the Barcham white container is undamaged with each container full of the healthy fibrous root essential for quick reliable establishment without the post planting stress associated with both open ground and root balled production methods.

Prior to the white bag trees were containerised largely in black rigid plastic containers with smooth side walls. As the root system developed the growing roots reached the smooth side wall and then developed around the circumference of the container. This is known as root girdling. Once apparent it is difficult for the tree roots to break out and develop normally, consequently the tree for all intents and purposes, strangles itself.

The Barcham white bag avoids this scenario. Roots are negatively phototropic (grow away from the light). The white bag is translucent allowing light through the side walls which encourages the root to move downwards. Root girdling is thus avoided.

Air pots produce a healthy fibrous root system working on the principle that through a series of holes in the side of the production container root tips will be air pruned resulting in lateral root development. This does work very well but the air pot remains a production method and unlike the white bag is not used in the despatch and delivery of the tree. The tree has to be repackaged at the time of delivery which exposes the root system to potential damage and desiccation. Barcham trees are despatched in the white bag and are therefore undisturbed during the despatch process.

Barcham is totally committed to the white bag with a firm belief that it is the most cost effective and successful method of supplying and establishing trees of all sizes.