Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
gardengalNancy

problems encountered while planting a tree

Recommended Posts

I purchased a kwanzan cherry tree and found the pot totally root bound with over 7 roots wrapping around the trunk. luckily most were minor in size. 2 were quite large and 1 was already cutting into the trunk. The root flare was 3" below the soil line in the pot. I loosened all roots and cut all the girdling ones. When I planted the tree today, I added fertilizer and watered it in quite well.

My questions are: Is there anything else I should do to give this tree a better chance of survival? Also, some of the roots are growing straight up. I read that surface roots are common in this type of tree. Should I cut those too? 

Thanks for the help.

Nancy

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So sorry to hear it, but not at all surprised. We buy from good nurseries and pick carefully but still, now, we see 8 compromised root systems in every 10 trees and shrubs we de-pot or unwrap. That's twice as many as 15 years ago.

We cut the girdling roots as you did, sometimes pegging them in place to keep them radiating out from the ball. We also remove all adventitious roots the grew from the trunk (almost always happens when the plant was set too deep as yours was). We plant at the correct flare-just-visible-above-ground depth. And then we do not do anything special, just mulch, water, watch and hope. So far we've had good results but we've only been dealing with so many seriously messed up root systems for 10-15 years, which is nothing in the overall life of the plant. We have seen many plants last 20 years or more before suddenly dying or going into fatal decline from root obstructions.

We usually reject a plant that has roots already pressing into the trunk because we're pretty sure that plant has some damage already, and thus less overall chance to thrive. But we don't KNOW that.

post-5-0-86641000-1421798541_thumb.jpg

Here's a redbud we did plant, after much debate. We cut, stretched out and teased roots until we thought we must surely kill it. It looked fine through fall but we'll see in spring, and for years until we-don't-know-when we'll be watching. IF it weakens so that things attack it, or it ups and dies you can bet we'll dissect the rot ball when we dig it out.

Sometimes with plants in large containers and B&B (12" diameter pot or larger, or roots in a bundle wrapped in burlap) we do what we did to that redbud, rinse the root ball completely so we can check for multiple pot-bound layers. That is, there may be roots that began circling at every transplant during production. There may be twist within twist; it's hard to say what we've done when we found that, other than cry, because its something different every time. Once we cut a pie-shaped wedge right into the whole ball to sever the whole mess, then removed all the loose ends. Once we cut the outer girdles and planted, and we're still watching to see what will happen in the long run...

 

 

This is an involved topic, especially if we discuss not only how to plant the individual plant but how to fix the plant production system that's creating these plants. We think we should do both, talk about how it happens as well as how to handle it when it does. Let us know if you want to hear more of that. We're speaking to the Michigan arborists' association next month about what we do when we plant compromised root systems like this, and reporting on what we have learned may be starting to happen on the production end. Nothing we have seen or heard says this mess will end soon, but we figure we'll all be in a better place if we can talk about what's been tried and seems to work.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

D.A. asked, after attending a conference where I was speaking abot a different topic:

Quick question janet...yesterday at the conference you mentioned the roots of trees and shrubs that are turning. If we get a shrub like this should we return it or is there something we can do to correct this growth pattern?

Thanks for any info u can give me and your talks yesterday were informative and fun as usual.

 

 

If it's very wound-around, D.A., we do return it and try to talk to the nursery manager about why, so their buyer will start looking out for and rejecting the worst. But the compromised root package has become so common and for many reasons we'll try to explain in an article on GardenAtoZ* it's going to be the status quo for years to come. So we're saying to gardeners we should all learn to look at the roots ( we wash most of the soil off the root ball to be able to see what the situation really is) and remove excess above the flare (including cutting away all the fibrous roots built up over the flare level), then straighten, cut and unravel all the roots they can at planting time.

Janet

 

 

*We've been explaining the why and what to do about compromised root packages -- girdling roots, flare buried, and other hindrances to growth --  as a 60 minute presentation to nursery industry groups. We've talked about it to some garden groups but not many -- it's an "ugly topic," not what most gardening clubs and conferences ask us to speak about. So we simply include mention of it everywhere we go.

I'll be posting this reply with your question at our Forum, with some photos. You can read and continue the disucssion there:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...