Looking for the best way to keep trees over in pots?

I just had my annual plant sale, and have many trees and shrubs left over. I would like to grow them on for another year, for selling next year. However, if I could get away with it, I wonder if I could plant them in the ground with their pots? Or maybe, I thought I saw somewhere about double pots, inside of a larger one, for easy removal??? Then, also I wondered if I could just grow them on in the posts sunk in a large bed of much, right up to the top of the pots. These are 8" to 3', mostly whips. How do the growers do it so they don't set out tons of roots each year that go too far??

If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it, and I am zone 4b, Wisconsin. Thanks, Legit

Legit, I overwinter tree seedlings in pots every year. Coniferous and deciduous. A winter past time is ordering and starting trees from seeds.

I sink them in bed of finely shredded leaves ensuring leaves are packed between the pots. I always have the leaf bed deeper than the pots as well since they will settle some over the winter. But clustered together with the leaves packed around them and also some just covering the pots, they've always made it.

You'll see nurseries just pile up mulch over the left over BB trees they have.

2 items -
- Especially if they are coniferous, ensure they get watered weekly until things freeze up in late Dec/early Jan. If you have a mid-winter thaw for a few days, I water them.
- If deciduous, you'll want to ensure there is bunny-proof fence around them as high as the tops of the trees. Otherwise, late winter means the bunnies will be manicuring your seedlings.

I successfully overwintered 2 very small redbuds, 3 one year old pagoda dogwoods which all got their leaders chopped but are up and growing vigorously now. They're still in the leaf mound as well, since they don't have a home yet. The long gingko finally got planted AND was untouched by the bunny-brigade since.

Thanks a bunch for the advice. I thought this might work, as 2 years ago I received a bunch, 6 I think, of carolina allspice way too late to dig in the ground, so I buried them in the mulch pile with just the tips of the branches sticking out, and yes, I did the chicken-wire bunny thing. I shoveled snow on them any time they began to peek out. Well, in the spring, I just watched the tips, and the buds started to swell, and they were fine!! I wondered if I had DH build a "raised bed" of wood, set them in, and filled with mulch. If I can get away without digging, so much the better!!! You don't think the roots will advance too much over one season, do you?? Legit

Are these seedlings?

Especially if left in the mulch pile all summer, you'll know who's snuck out the drainage holes by the ones showing lush growth. :) Which is OK. I've lost 2 over the years when I repotted in the fall but I've repotted spring and fall. Anyway, if you just mulch up around them now and they hang out in the back somewhere for the summer. Next spring when the snow melts you can lift and rootprune and/or repot.

This is a new bed of leaves I blew in last fall. I was tired of fooling with a strip of grass here. So far I've still got 3 Italian Skyrockets, a Nootkatensis and a variegated Chamaecyparis I got mail order last spring and fall and haven't decided what to do. But I'd moved others out and yesterday decided to pot up some brug seedlings, sink them and let them spend the summer here. Sun, protection and if (when) then get out the drain holes.... they'll take off like rockets.

I would not sink the pots until this fall. If you sink the pots now, the plants will root through the drainage holes, which is something that you don't want to happen.

Last fall, I sunk 178 pots (mostly dwarf conifers and small trees) in the ground for the winter. I have done this for many, many years (but last fall was the most I have ever had to sink in the ground for the winter). I have the bad habit of buying plants before I'm ready to plant and then needing to hold the plants until the planting site is ready. If I find a plant I want, I need to buy it because if I don't, when I am finally ready to plant, I won't be able to find the plant (that's how it usually works for me, anyway).

Just be sure to keep the plants well watered this summer and try and shade the pots from the summer sun (especially if the pots are black) so the plant roots don't bake.
Mike

Which is where sinking the pots in the leaf or mulch pile (not in the ground) serves another purpose. They're not cooking in the sun and it reduces moisture loss as well. Lift or twist the pots maybe once a month and root prune if necessary. In my case, if I have roots coming out the drain holes I usually repot to a size or two up. When I do finally plant, swap or give it away, I don't want it root bound.