Planting trees in the fall? Let's do this!

Fall is a great time to plant trees. What is the best way to plant them? Whether you plant them yourself, or you use a landscape contractor to plant your trees for you, there are recommended practices you should follow. Improper planting of trees, both in the nursery setting, and in the landscape setting, contribute to more tree deaths than all other factors combined!

Let’s review what are currently the best management practices and minimum standards which should be followed when planting a tree.

First, call 811 before you dig. Your spouse will be extremely unhappy with you if you should cut the internet cable, or worse, hit a gas line.

Next, look up. Make sure you have vertical clearance for your trees. Avoid planting them under the utility’s right of way.

Once you have done a site analysis to ensure you have selected the right tree for the right place and that you are not going to disrupt any utilities, head to the nursery to buy your plant material.

Here is where it becomes important to know what to look for when purchasing plant material. Look and shop around. Examine plant material carefully. You are making an investment that could add $20,000 or more to the value of your property, treat the experience as you would buying a new car! Check your tree for signs of girdling or circling roots. Make sure the tree is free from broken, rubbing, or damaged branches, and any place where the trunk has been injured. A tree should have good structure with a single trunk. Avoid co-dominant trunks.

The next step is to dig a proper hole. Standards state that the planting hole should be a minimum of 1.5 times the diameter of the root ball. Research from land-grant universities suggest a saucer shaped planting hole three times the diameter of the root ball. This allows the roots to establish quicker and avoid post planting stress. In our poor soils and arid climate, establishing the root system and minimizing stress factors is extremely important.

Be sure you are planting the tree at the proper depth. As mentioned above, planting trees too deep, either in the nursery setting, or in the landscape setting can lead to circling, and/or girdling roots and eventually, death. Check the depth of roots in the root ball by using a blunt probing instrument, such as a screwdriver. Do not assume it was planted correctly in the nursery! Two to three structural roots should be no deeper than one inch measured four inches out from the trunk of the tree. If roots are deeper than that, you will want to remove soil from the top of the root ball and adjust the depth of the planting hole. 

Handling the tree carefully by the root ball, place the tree in the planting hole with the root ball rising above the soil grade one to two inches on firm, undug soil. Once the tree is in place, remove the burlap and wire baskets from the top third of the root ball. Fabric, paper pulp pots, and containers should carefully be removed.  

Once the tree is properly in place, begin backfilling the planting hole. It is not recommended to add amendments to the planting hole as this creates a second container roots to have to grow through to establish. Planting holes should be amended with no more than 10% organic matter.  When backfilling, add the soil in small amounts and use water to settle it. Avoid compacting the soil around the roots.

Now you may add mulch. Just avoid mulch volcanoes

and don't allow mulch to touch the trunk of the tree. Mulch should be kept a minimum of four inches away from the tree's trunk. Not following this practice allows for disease and decay organisms to rot the trunk of the tree. Mulch should be applied at a depth of four inches. For young trees prone to winter damage, or in areas where animals can cause damage to the tree, consider protecting them. Tree staking is not recommended except in wind prone or high traffic areas. 

With this information, you are ready to go out and plant a new tree. Although these steps are an increase in labor, the return on the investment is a higher quality, longer lasting landscape.

No slowing down for Tree & Turf Team this season

Well, things aren’t slowing down for Tree and Turf team this season. After the earliest start for team back in March, the newly combined team has been meeting weekly at Caldwell Extension office going through new client call-ins, emails and walk-ins. We’ve stayed busy researching through numerous education web sites, reading through extension office library books to come up with best answers to help with client’s questions.  A good part of weekly meeting involves research and follow ups with clients.
  

LISA Training

Setting out measuring cups

The team has also continued the process of its own learning by taking class at Rich’s house back in early May. The new educational service called LISA “Lawn Irrigation System Audit” allows anyone to call extension office and schedule Master Gardener to come out to their home.  The MG can perform water irrigation test that determines how well your lawn irrigation system is performing across your whole lawn. So, if you notice any dry brown areas or soggy wet areas in your lawn, this service could be a benefit that could help determine if you need to move or adjust your irrigation water flow.

then measuring each cup

Watering for a set amount of time

The service is reasonably priced at $20.00 per call.  The overall  time to do the whole service at the client’s place is about an hour.

What we have seen lately are clients calling a professional landscape person to help in planting a new tree into their yard. Then a short time later [4 to 12 months], the tree starts the slow die-off process because it was improperly planted.  They then call the Extension Office asking "Why is my tree dying?". Notice the triangle wires sticking out of the ground, this is part of wire basket in which the tree was shipped.⇓

We’ve had several clients call in the past month where landscaper dug too small of hole for that size tree. Then just rolled the root ball wrapped in burlap sack along with thick wire basket into hole. This didn’t allow roots to grow and be healthy, instead the roots were stuck in very small space and tree started slow death.

This is what you want to remove before putting your tree root into the ground:  All of the Wire rack and burlap sack ⇒⇒

I’ve included a couple of very good Education web sites that show the proper way to plant new trees and a good maintenance schedule to help your tree stay healthy.

Monday is just around the corner for us with more new client questions to research for right answers. 

So, until next month, keep on digging!

The Tree and Turf Team