Can bud unions be planted too deep?
laura242424
12 years ago
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karl_bapst_rosenut
12 years agoseil zone 6b MI
12 years agoRelated Discussions
New Cherry Tree Budding From Bud Union
Comments (3)I think you've let the people who bash Stark to promote their favorite mail order company to get into your head and convince you that you did wrong. Stark is a perfectly reputable company. You letting them getting into your head is keeping you from being clear. First it's budding from the bud union, now it has buds close to the bud union on up. You paid for pruning but call that pruning you paid for "no branches to speak of". Is the tree even growing yet? If not, stop worrying about it. If it sends out a branch, not leaves, in a place you don't want a branch you can either rub it off before it gets big or you can let it go and prune it when it's dormant. But if you wrap it those buds will probably stay dormant because they won't get light. If it should happen to do anything FROM the graft union or BELOW remove it. The only way you're getting a cherry bush is if you train it to be a cherry bush....See MoreBurying a bud union 2+ years after planting?
Comments (15)It is a puzzle, isn't it, Michael. I can't really help out on this. Arlene, what I recommend is, for now, go ahead and add a couple inches of soil to change the grade. And maybe even add some mulch or leaves for added winter protection. Before you do that, however, clearly mark those large canes coming from beneath the apparent graft. Then next spring observe very closely exactly which canes are blooming yellow Julia Child blooms. Check very carefully to see what the marked canes give as blooms--if nothing or a darker red single bloom, then those are probably rootstock taking over and eventually destroying the Julia Child plant. If the marked canes bloom (or not) anything except Julia Child, then you have a grafted plant with Julia Child canes originating at or above the graft and red Dr. Huey (probably) canes originating below the graft. Let us know next spring at blooming time what you get, and we can advise you then what to do. However, I want to be sure that you understand that rootstock taking over means that you will be growing a Dr. Huey rose and NOT a Julia Child rose. After a brutal winter, these kinds of problems are not uncommon in Zone 6 which is kind of a "transition" zone between the hotter and colder regions--except Zone 6 can never quite decide which way it wants to go, so it often tries to do both. Really screws up some plants as a result. Kate...See MoreTree Planted Too Deep - Too Late To Raise
Comments (16)I did my red maple in earlier in spring, trying to raise it. Mine was planted about 10-12" too deep, but I planted it myself, with the help of a hired hand in fall of 2015. BTW, I'm in Marlboro NJ, zone 7A. The tree in question was a beautiful October Glory maple. I was just aiming to get the top of the burlap bag an inch or 2 above the surrounding soil, not realizing until next spring, that I had made a mistake. It started out a beautiful 'rubrum' in spring, giving me hours of pleasure, as I just stood around it, sometimes nursing a drink. But as a very wet spring progressed, and the leaves were still not opening out fully, my mind raced to a number of things that could have gone wrong in the planting. I definitely had not cut the cage around it as thoroughly as I should have (damn thick guage wire, so hard to cut with pliers!). So, one very wet day, in a very very wet week, I started investigating, prying the dirt away, in an effort to find the wire cage. In the process I discovered that I could not see the root flare at all, instead the trunk was buried, and was discoloring and fraying from the surrounding soil and water. So I decided to raise it. I leaned on the tree, this way and that until it was moving on it's root ball. I shoveled dirt under the root ball, trying to work it in with my foot. Then I had a brainwave! I soaked the root ball and surrounding with water and waited. As the water drained down, the dirt mixed in the water found it's way to the bottom, while I was still wiggling it. It worked, the tree was slowly raised. And then I made the fatal mistake! I also saw roots that were growing from down on up. Now, with the tree raised, these roots were poking into the air. I started cutting them, some of them were big and juicy. I felt horrible, but could not stop! After I had raised and root pruned the tree to my aesthetic satisfaction, I covered it with dirt just so, and mulched and staked it. It looked really nice, with the frayed trunk, previously suffering the indignity of being buried, now finally breathing and recovering, or so I thought. I kept the tree well watered, even spritzing it a few times a day (deputizing my kids in the job as well). But the leaves started drooping. I increased the watering and spritzing, but to no avail. One by one, the leaves gradually turned brown, and then dropped. After a few weeks, in a frantic effort to save the tree, I cut back the branches a couple of inches from the terminal buds to encourage growth. But to no avail. Right now, it's late August, and a scratch test reveals a dead tree. No cambium, no phloem, no nothing! There are leaves growing from the base, but even those are drying up right now. So, I will definitely be replacing the tree. I have a question from this learned group, but I will first let this greek tragedy soak in first....See MoreDid I plant 10 bareroot/grafted roses too deep? Can I dig them up?
Comments (13)I've taken an interest in learning about Florida gardening because I plan to move down there eventually. What I've read again and again about discouraging nematodes is to maintain a heavy layer of organic mulch. This will eventually break down and improve your soil. Some people mix in cheap clay kitty litter to make their soil heavier. Another possibility is to heavily underplant roses with Marigolds. There is one seed strain of French Marigolds in particular which tested as being very effective at deterring root-knot nematodes -- Tagetes patula 'Ground Control' (aka 'Single Gold'). The one caveat is that the effects won't be seen until the following year, and to maintain the effect, you'll want to replant them every year. As far as planting too deep -- I think many here would say I am guilty of this, but there hasn't been any negative effect which I can see. When I was putting this garden together, I planted my roses (own-root bands that were grown-on in pots for a few months) directly into the native soil in late Summer 2013. Prior to planting them, I had laid down sheets of cardboard to smother weeds and grass, and covered that with trimmings from a tree I was cutting back. This accumulated to about three inches, but it was a very "airy" three inches. Over all that, I put down an additional 6-8" of "proper" mulch (partially composted shredded wood chips). At first, I made concave "dishes" around each rose to allow water to be directed towards their roots and keep mulch away from the canes as I kept reading I was supposed to do, but after the first Winter, the beds were pretty much leveled out. In Spring, I worked an additional 2" of composted manure into that layer of mulch. This meant that what was once the border between canes and roots was now about 8-10" below the surface. Why did I do this? I wanted to give the roses an "early start" on having deep roots for getting water, and anticipated that canes buried beneath the mulch line would eventually root further up, allowing for easier access to fertilizer applied at the surface. Companion perennials were planted directly into this "mulch/compost" layer in Spring 2014, and they grew like gangbusters in their first year. Last Autumn, I wanted to continue adding organic matter to the beds, so I "harvested" fallen tree leaves and spread them to a "fluffy" three inches thick. I also started collecting used coffee grounds from Starbucks -- one 13gal kitchen garbage can-full per day -- and spread this about 2-3" over the leaves. It took about three months to complete. Winter snow has packed this down a bit, and the previous year's additions have started breaking down, so where I'm at now is about where I was after the first layer of mulch -- about 6-8" above the original soil line. This week, I started some early pruning. While there is some snow still remaining in half of the garden, where it is gone there was already life in the top layer of coffee grounds and leaves -- various soil critters are waking up and finding lots of food waiting for them. I've noticed some freeze damage (naturally) on some rose canes, but nothing soft and mushy which would indicate "cane rot". True, this could emerge later in the season, but I also never saw it last Spring when the roses' canes were also buried to about the same level. Why is this not harming my roses? Perhaps because what's covering the canes is actively being broken down by the various organisms in the soil, and that process is different than simply being a blanket of "wet" around the rose canes. Worms and critters keep moving the material around, and fungi digesting the material are sopping up the extra moisture. I don't know for sure -- all I can say is that I don't see any negative effects. :-) ~Christopher...See Morelaura242424
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