North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

I found some old notes from the NAFEX meeting or somewhere else.  I had 
scribbled.......
"Starting seedlings in containers will create large root masses and lead to 
wider crotches, early fruiting and more."

Del Stubbs gave me a bunch of sprouting apricot pits in 2001, and I got 3 of 
them to grow.  All went into 1-gallon nursery cans in the beginning.  Two 
trees died, but the third flourished.  It gradually was moved up to bigger 
containers, ending in a 5-gallon can in Spring 2003.  I finally got the 
acreage I needed in July that year and planted the tree in the ground.  The 
root system was huge when I tapped the tree out of the can, and the tree put 
on 3 feet in height this summer.  Crotches are wide, too.  Bob Purvis tells 
me that the pits I got from Del are Montrose, an apricot from Colorado, 
late-flowering and hardy down to -31F.  My limited experience with this tree 
seems to bear out the above scribblings.

What have others seen in regards to seedlings in containers?
Doreen Howard
IL-WI Border--Zone 4b