The white container has become synonymous with Barcham trees and remains central to the nursery’s expansion and continuous development for one simple reason, it works.

The whole experiment with white containers began in the early 1990’s with Peter Wells dissatisfied with the establishment rate of open ground and rootballed trees particularly when exposed to the harsh realities of urban planting.

'All the evidence suggested that both rootballed trees and open ground trees reached the customer damaged. It is an inevitable part of the lifting process that roots vital to the trees health are actually left in the ground when they are lifted from the nursery field. Rootballs are lifted with nursery soil but only thick roots remain with the active fibrous roots left behind in the nursery soil ready to be ploughed back in. The transplanted tree was then left to recover in its permanent planting site with obvious and high failure rates apparent.'

At the same time, Managing Director Mike Glover, then a student at Writtle, learned from an Australian nurseryman that white pots rather than traditional black ones were actually better for any plant which stays in it’s container for more than a few months. On joining Barcham a few months later Glover was delighted to see that the company was already seriously trialling those white pots with a view to full scale tree production.

'From the first time I planted a containerised tree from its conventional black container I hade doubts over the sustainability of the root system. So often a mass of fibrous and spiralled roots is applauded but I have always thought of them as a time bomb waiting to explode'

As the tree roots developed and reached the sides of the container they began to spiral randomly, like motor bikes on the wall of death, forming a knotted and tangled root system. At secondary thickening the roots knitted ever closer and were never allowed to establish laterally to form the anchorage necessary to sustain the weight of the plant above ground, with inevitably fatal results’

HOW THE WHITE CONTAINER WORKS

Roots react to light. They move away from it. This is called a tropism and a reaction to light is called photo-tropism. The white side wall of the white container is translucent, allowing a certain amount of light through. This causes the root to grow down rather than, as with black rigid containers, follow the circumference of the container wall. Consequently root spiralling and subsequent establishment problems are avoided.

Over the years Barcham has also modified and refined the compost mix used in the white container. A peat/ bark mix is now used with a brick waste product known locally as ‘grog’ to keep the compost mix open. A granular slow release fertilizer is incorporated in the mix and is supplemented by a balanced liquid feed programme applied through the irrigation system with every watering. The end result is a vibrant, fully fibrous, undamaged root system which is in the optimum condition to facilitate quick establishment once the tree is planted out.

OTHER ADVANTAGES

Handling trees from the nursery to their final planting site can also be problematic and adversely influence final planting success. Rootballs are heavy and very difficult to handle while bare root trees need to be protected at all times to avoid desiccation and potential death. Many root systems are known to be damaged beyond recovery with as little as 15 minutes exposure even though the tree may be dormant. This root damage will not be apparent until the tree is planted and leaves fail to appear in the spring.

The white bag protects the root system not only on the nursery, where it is the production container, but during despatch and storage prior to planting. Unlike other production methods the white bag remains with the tree protecting the root system through to the final planting site with that root system never exposed to the elements to accommodate despatch.

During development of the white bag handles were incorporated to enable trees to be easily moved both on the nursery and subsequently with the customer. The end result is that every Barcham tree has a full, healthy and undamaged root system, protected from containerisation through to eventual planting, and is easy to move around on site.

THE LIGHT POT

The Light Pot introduced in 2003 represents the latest development of the white container.
This pot incorporates a permeable and degradable mulch mat and a root barrier designed to assist customers where root invasion may be a potential problem.
Barcham has patented the design and now markets the container in the United States as well as producing trees exclusively in them for sale in the UK.