The Root Control Bag

The Patented, Original Bag System of Growing

Harvesting Quick & Easy
Anyone Can Dig
Greatly Expanded Harvesting Season
No Expensive Harvesting Equipment Needed
Automatic Root Pruning

 How-To Guide

FAQ About The Bag

The Smart Pot-In Ground (The Root Control Bag) is a fabric container that root prunes a plant’s root structure and make harvesting quick and easy.  The first trees in bags were planted at our farm in 1980 and harvested in 1982.  Since incorporating in 1984 as Root Control, Inc, High Caliper Growing has sold millions of bags worldwide.

Think System!
Today, a large number of great nurserymen use the bag system to their advantage. The system produces the highest quality plant at the lowest cost. We urge you to visit a nursery that has used the system for years and to buy some bag grown trees.

How Does The Smart Pot-In Ground System Work?
Trees and shrubs are planted into the Smart Pot-In Ground.  As the roots of the plant grow, they hit the fuzzy inside fabric of the bag.  Importantly, roots do not circle on the fabric as they do against plastic.  Instead the root is caught by the fuzzy inner surface of the material.  The root penetrates the fabric.  The tough fabric, however, prevents the root from expanding.  The root is choked or girdled by the fabric.  The choking causes the root to lose its apical dominance and lateral branching or pruning occurs inside the bag.
 

Root Pruning is important to the health of a transplanted plant.  A high quality plant saves you money.  With the Smart Pot-In Ground, approximately 80% of the root structure is harvested with the plant.  By contrast, a study at Michigan State University showed that up to 98% of a tree’s root structure can be cut away with normal digging procedures.

The Bag is porous.  Moisture and nutrients pass freely into and out of the bag.  Water and nutrient absorption occurs normally both inside and outside the bag at the root tips.  Water and nutrients are transferred up through the center of the root, the xylem.  Carbohydrates manufactured in the leaves travel down the outer cambium layer of the plant, the phloem.  This carbohydrate flow is stopped or greatly restricted by the fabric.  A build up of carbohydrates ensues within the root structure inside the Bag.  Many roots will swell on the inside and outside of the bag, and a natural callusing occurs at the bag surface.  Root primordia form with the callus, assuring rapid root regeneration at transplanting.

Remove The Bag
When the tree is transplanted, REMOVE THE BAG.  Water the plant.  Because of the fibrous feeder root development, the carbohydrate build up, and the root callusing, new root regeneration is almost immediate.  Expect a greatly expanded harvesting season, superior transplanting success and top growth the season following transplanting.

Laminated Bottom
The bottom of the Smart Pot-In Ground is a polyethylene laminated onto polypropylene fabric.  This laminated plastic bottom assures that all root growth is lateral through the fabric.  All roots hitting the bottom are diverted into the fabric side.  Easy digging, with no undercutting, is then assured.  Because the plastic bottom forms no attachment to the roots, bag removal is easy.

The bottom of the Bag is applied by a hot melt glue process.  The glue process leaves a flat bottom and no sewn seam through which a root can escape.  The superior fabric, the glue process and the years of testing make the Smart Pot-In Ground the best growing system available.

We Make These Sizes
The size tree you want to harvest dictates what size Bag to use.
Following are our sizes and the suggested plant size at harvest.

Call for current pricing and a complete discussion of the Bag size to plant caliper size relationship.  We custom make other sizes.

We look forward to working with you!  Call us at 800-521-8089.

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