With hardware cloth on the bottom of the bed, the tap root reaches down 8-14 inches, touches air, and stops growing. Instead of continuing down, the root system becomes fibrous, leading to a healthy and easy to transplant seedling. The added benefit of growing trees in a raised bed is that we can protect them from rodent damage. Squirrels and chipmunks looking for nuts can destroy an incredible number of trees in a short period of time. We put framed hardware cloth tops on our beds to keep every tree safe. In an air-pruned raised bed, the roots have space to grow into the healthy, fibrous system we want it to be. The watering needs of a potted plant can be immense, while we seldom have to water trees growing in beds of rich high-organic matter soil.

Bare-root trees

Cost is one last benefit to bare-root plants, as no one has to pay for the pot and soil that come with potted plants and shipping costs are greatly reduced as well.