i agree with it all .. except they left out clay soil .. where you would plant it above the grade to insure air to the roots ...

to sum up ... for trees/conifers ...

bigger is not better...
do not amend the hole... no fertilizer is necessary
water deeply and let almost dry in between... insert finger ..
mulch well...
more leaves, means more food production, means more roots, means faster 'establishment' ... so hold off on radical pruning ... remove broken branches if any

and.. on my sand... i water properly for the first year ... only in drought the second.. and trees/conifers are free range after that .... and i have never bought a tree bigger than 6 feet ... it may be a bit of an over generalization to say a smaller tree only needs to be watered for a few weeks ....

good luck .. ken

Thank you to everybody who keeps typing these truths. It would be helpful to newbies if the tags on trees said this instead of the whole amending thing.

Also, they need to say to gently remove all wire, twine and burlap and spread the roots a bit and cut any circular rootbound roots from container-squishing.

I wish there was some way to convince ppl that new research is worth heeding. At work they're getting ready to build new buildings and the plans show landscaping which is not appropriate and the planting instructions are all wrong. When this was pointed out to the project manager he exploded in a fit of rage and said that's the landscaper's job and he's the expert. Hhhhmmmm.

I'm trying to understand the whole stake thing better. Part of my yard is in a wind tunnel so if I don't stake the young snap-whip trees they'll break or fly out of the ground. Had that happen when 1st planted. Just don't know when to take off the chainlock (soft rubber thick interlocking ties). Big windstorm warning issued for Tuesday so will go pound more lodgepole stakes into the ground and chainlock more trees that now have only thin stakes and velcro plant ties.

Supposedly the trunks do better without staking but how can they do better if they're snapped in half by the wind?

I wish I had been outside when my husband and his dad planted our new maple tree, they didn't rough up the root ball and they amended the soil. We'll heed the watering advice--if I hadn't read this, we'd probably drown the poor thing! Crossing my fingers for the tree and giving this info to the dh for the future :)

Theresa, that sparks the reminder that they say also to rough up the sides of the planting hole.

Alas most of my trees were planted with holes with sheer slick clay sides -- like a pottery wheel scene. *** sigh ***

Of course sometimes it is necessary to stake a young tree especially if it is in a very windy location or a dense crown that causes the root ball to rock back and forth. The trick is to tie it so it is not so tight as to cause abrasion on the trunk. Also, forgot to mention that the author says that fall is the best time to plant a tree. By the way, the author of this article is Lee Reich.

I don't understand all the anti soil amendment talk,how can putting compost in the hole create the plant pot effect? The roots are free to grow where they like. Personally I would only use the soil already there anyway,tho when I planted my goldcrest the soil was a bit heavy so i added coir and vermiculite to help with drainage.

I'd like to add a couple things..

Make sure the little trees have branches/leaves almost all the way from top to bottom of the trunk.

Another thing is best root system you can find. I wish more and more places would use whitcomb rootmaker container to prevent root girdling. Even in 5 gallons, you will have problems but you just don't see it despite your best effort to fix it. 5g is the easiest to fix compared to larger ones though due to the size of roots. With whitcomb rootmaker, there's no need to hack away root girdling, etc. The rootball is perfectly intact. Id' think it will encourage faster establishment...

The amending of individual planting holes has to do with soil interface issues - any time you have a series of different soil textures it disrupts the natural path of draining water and affects its abilty to percolate through smoothly and evenly. Amending an individual planting hole can actual slow drainage rather than improving it - it is the same principle behind not layering gravel or shards in the bottom of a container planting. Heavily amending a planting hole in poorly draining soil most often results in a bathtub effect, where the amended hole retains too much moisture that doesn't drain adequately. Plus, there is evidence to indicate that a juxtaposition of different soil types - the soil with the rootball, the amended soil of the planting hole and and indigenous soil - can slow root establishment. In heavy soils, this often results in a natural girdling of the roots as they tend to remain in the looser, "improved soil". Again, this is one of the reasons current planting recommendations encourage digging a planting hole 2-3 times the width of the rootball and with disturbed sides - so the roots can move out into the indigenous soil easily. If amending is needed - and at times it is - it is far more beneficial to amend an entire planting area rather than the individual planting holes, so that the amendments are fully incorporated over a wide area, reducing or eliminating the interface problems.

" ... it is the same principle behind not layering gravel or shards in the bottom of a container planting ... "

Aha! A chance to do something right vs instructions on tag!

Bought 9 fiberglass containers. Tag says to drill holes 1" up sides from bottom, then lay 1 1/2 " of gravel on bottom. Then dirt, then plant.

What is the correct method?

Drill the holes, as without them, there would be NO drainage. Plants don't do too well sitting in soil soup! I would pass on the layer of gravel, it just gives the roots less room to run in.

The only exception I would make to this is if you plan to plant annuals only in the pots - most of them don't grow very deep roots, and the water in the soil isn't taken up, so it can get waterlogged at the bottom of the pot, even with drainage. If you are planting trees, shrubs or perennials, with deep roots, then they want all the soil they can get for their roots. I lied, I might make an exception to no gravel if I lived where there was very heavy rain, as it would allow for excess water to run out of the pot, avoiding the aforementioned soil soup! Putting a piece of window screening in the bottom of the pot will help keep the soil from washing out, and MIGHT keep slugs and bugs from crawling in.

Is rust bad for plants? Should I look for a non-rusting type of window screening (maybe they all are, haven't compared) ?

This system or pot has been mentioned a few times on the tree forum. Would someone like to explain it, or provide a link to a picture & explanation?

All about Whitcomb and airpruning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Whitcomb

The actual research on planting landscape trees has been ongoing for at least 30 years. The answers are in readily available, free, publications. We just need to get people to read them and follow the recommendations.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting Landscape Trees

Cascadians, I think most window screening now is fiberglass or aluminum, so rusting is a non-issue. The fiberglass is easier to use in this application in my opinion - it can be bent and smoothed out again, while the aluminum stays bent, and is hard to place evenly. But I tend to re-use pots and screening, changing them frequently. If you plan to leave plants in pots for a while, I don't suppose it matters; get whichever is the cheaper per running foot at the hardware/big box store. The fiberglass CAN be cut with ordinary scissors, the aluminum needs strong shears and hands, or else tin snips/wirecutters, which you might want to factor in.

Hmmm,never heard of that system before,looks intriguing!

Thank you Dibbit! and everybody for all the important info.

Roots have trouble getting out of amended planting holes when the stock selected was in poor condition before planting, is not making a full amount of growth of any kind - and/or when the bathtub effect or dryness (both occur, depending on moisture conditions at the time and soil textures involved) created by the amending of the backfill has a stunting effect.

Plants toughing it out will root into the unamended soil beyond the hole fairly soon, at which point growth may increase markedly - clearly showing that planting in the existing native soil was preferable to adding amendments. Roots do not "prefer" or "choose" the amended backfill and circle around inside the planting hole. Roots are geotropic, they grow away from the center of the plant unless deflected by an uncrossable barrier. Most planting hole walls are not going to be like fiberglass, plastic or stone in consistency.

The December 2007 "Fine Gardening" magazine has a myths arcticle which gets into this a bit, as well as hitting on other activity areas. Unfortunately, it repeats the idea that roots don't like to leave amended planting holes.

To chime in...

Young transplants experience less root loss only when they experience less root loss. It depends on how big of a ball can be lifted with a larger tree. Bigger trees have been moved with most of their root system.

Someone mentioned allowing drying-out in between waterings - I don't agree with that. There was an article on the online seminars website for arborists to get CEUs, not long ago, about watering. It said that the latest research shows "keeping trees moist" is preferred. My tree planting was done that way, and indicates that the latest research is right.

The same article discouraged pruning newly planted trees, although its probably best to remove certain defects like codominant stems instead of waiting a couple of years and ending up with a bigger cut, or a broken tree.

As far as ammendments, that's up-for-grabs to a certain degree. The soil in the B&B balls, or in pots, is frequently different from the planting area anyway, so that throws a wrench in the machinery of logic right there.

Basically, the person doing the planting will just need to know some basic soil science and make a specific decision and solution for each and every planting site.

If the soil removed from the holes can be properly prepared, it should do just fine for backfill. But that's not always the case.

There is no need to plant the flare higher than grade in clay soil, if its good clay soil - and there are some good clay soils.

But there are some miserable clay soils too. Almost makes one question planting trees in them at all sometimes.

I've been reading this thread, and there are just as many opinions on here as there are replies!

The most important factor in this all is your local conditions and your particular situation.

*In general*, a smaller balled and burlapped tree will have a higher percentage of its root system intact, IF the root ball is the same size as one from a larger tree. Sometimes, they will take a smaller root ball for a smaller tree, however, and you'll lose the same percentage of roots. In that case, smaller trees can still adapt a bit better simply because you can offer them more TLC than a larger tree.

I also don't agree with allowing the soil to dry out. Don't follow any preset schedule recommendations for watering. Go out and dig your finger into the soil and determine if it needs watering yourself.

If you have sandy soil, you may have to water the tree up to every day during the hottest, driest weather of the year to keep the root ball from drying out and scorching. If you live in coastal Alaska with clay soil, you'll probably only rarely have to water the tree, even after transplant.

If you have sandy soil, dig your finger in a few inches. If it is dry, you've already waited too long.. water immediately. If it is slightly moist, you can water now with no ill effects. If it's nice and moist, wait a day and check again.

If you have clay soil, dig your finger in a few inches, though you don't have to check quite as deep. Do the same steps as above.

Also, fertilizing is generally not recommended not because a tree absolutely doesn't need it or because it's bad for the tree... it's that more trees probably die at the hands of Miracle Gro than anything else, because people love their trees to death.

DON'T USE MIRACLE GRO on a tree. Find a well balanced fertilizer and apply it lightly. It's best to apply it in the fall or spring right before new growth starts, as this is when the tree needs nutrients the most.

Get a soil test done and figure out what your soil is low in, and fertilize from there. Adding a slow release, balanced fertilizer will likely never hurt your tree, but err on the side of caution.

The reason fertilizer can be really bad is because it contains a lot of salts that can burn the roots if they are not watered in correctly. If you apply fertilizer on a 100 degree day in July and sprinkle some water on top, that fertilizer is going to bake in the sun and be concentrated on the top of the soil right on some of the roots.

If you apply in the spring when it is cooler, you can water it in really well and the water will keep it more diluted as it won't evaporate as fast out of the soil.

I would recommend a slow release 10-10-10 to boost growth even if your soil doesn't have a major deficiency of nutrients.

I've learned that everybody has a different opinion on dealing with trees. The ones that tell you to ALWAYS or NEVER EVER do something are probably wrong. Use common sense. Would you take 15 multi-vitamins in a day or drink 58 glasses of water or wait until you were dehydrated to drink water again? Of course not. Trees don't want that either.

Amending of backfill was seen to be counterproductive decades ago. That discussion is (or should be) over. As for the rootballs having a different texture from the soil on the new site, that provides an additional reason not to add a third zone of soil (the amended backfill) for the roots to have to cross - rather than a reason to wave off the clearly established disadvantages of amending backfills.

Instead it is now being advocated to bareroot at planting, such as on the L. Chalker-Scott pages on planting I have posted here on other threads. Wilting is held up as the main reason for not doing this, however planting of hardy stock should be done in cool weather of fall anyway, as well as followed up with watering etc.

I believe the research that says root systems develop faster in a low nitrogen environment. To me, this means withhold fertilizer when planting. A couple/three years down the road, it could well be beneficial.

Another comment.......everyone is always saying have the soil tested before adding any nutrients, but.......the nutrient which is almost always in short supply is nitrogen, and routine soil tests do not measure levels of this nutrient because it is too hard to pin down in the soil.

My personal feeling, having planted thousands upon thousands of trees, is that a little organic fertilizer at planting time will cause no harm. The nitrogen contained therein will not be available to the plant for some time anyway. And conversely, a simple, fast-acting chemical nitrogen source like urea can be used successfully later in the transplants life if one uses common sense and doesn't just dump it on.

There's more than one way to get to the same place

+oM

Each site has its own parameters. There is no advantage to withholding a deficient nutrient from a newly planted specimen. If that deficiency is or becomes limiting, the plant will not benefit from it being left uncorrected because "you never fertilize newly planted stock."

I take exception with the idea that the root flare can be burried in clay soil. Regardless of soil type, planting a tree like a telephone pole very simply in time will kill the tree. Gee, I've never known anyone who has planted thousand upon thousands of trees. The real issue is digging an ugly hole several times larger that the root ball and only deep enough so that the root flare is a ground level refilling with the soil that came out of the hole. Ammendments and mulch should be added to the surface where they do the most good. Trees receive plenty of fertilizer when fertilizing the lawn. It is equally important to plant trees adapted to the area. As an example, pin oaks, sweet gums and many conifers do not like alkaline soil unless one enjoys pale yellow leaves all year.

bboy...

...and a few others...

Gotta disagree with you partially about the ammendment thing again...

You may have noticed that I wrote earlier person doing the planting will just need to know some basic soil science and make a specific decision and solution for each and every planting site.

Now snowguy...added...

"local conditions and your particular situation".

That part can be very applicable.

I'll give you one example to teach you a lesson in planning and horticulture - something from my installations...

Some people have asked me to plant trees for them, say in autum, and we have already marked our calendars to ammend, rototil and landscape the area around the trees.

In that situation, the area around the trees, and the backfill, will both be similar within the space of a year.

There are other times that ammendment are practical too, but no need to list those currently, as some readers need to move beyond "safty-net" formulas.

Now granted, beginners may need a basic guidelines, but the more experienced need to watch that they don't steer them away from considering special exceptions and solutions

In general though, most of the basic guidelines are good starting points. And if consideration shows no need to deviate from a guideline, fine, stick with it.

There is nothing wrong with using organic fertilizer at all. It doesn't work the same way as synthetic. The main purpose of organic fertilizer is to feed soil microbes which will help protect and build up organic matter around the root ball. The roots might not even get that much nitrogen anyway. it is pretty dependent of what protozoan does (they are responsible for releasing nitrogen) and I don't imagine they will be all that active in cold weather anyway.

What I do... (for 7g or less)

1) dig a wide and shallow ugly hole, usually 5 feet wide

2) fill the hole with water. Come back later.

3) Plant the tree. Make sure to cut off girdling roots and scrape dirt off the top to expose root flares. In my experiences, almost all have grown into top 1-2 inches too high so you will have to scrape all those roots off as well. Keep the root flares around 1-2 inches above ground. They seem to always sink after time. i guess it was due to decomposition of fine pine bark mix.

4)Backfill with native soil. Make sure there is no air pockets.

5)Add extra topsoil on the top to smooth it out from rootball to the edge of the hole if needed. I usually do because of my rocky soil. I've had to get rid of some big rocks.

6) spread one inch of compost on the entire hole.

7) A mixture of soybean meal, corn meal, alfalfa pellets, lava sand and green sand spread thinly over compost. I do this because this land is recently developed. In the other word. it's crappy dirt.

8) Apply 4 inches thick of coarse semi aged hardwood mulch o n the entire hole. It should look like a donut with nothing touching the trunk.

9) Water heavily.

10) Give it shallow watering every few days on the root ball just to keep the rootball MOIST. Only a gallon or so. It seemed to work much better. I water heavily every one or two weeks (i have to for the grass anyway so...)

The problem with amendments is the altering of the soil texture in the backfill. Any material or procedure that results in newly installed plants sitting in a small area of one texture surrounded by a larger area of another texture may result in a water movement problem around the roots of the plants. If the entire future rooting area is modified, so that there is not a zone of different texture nearby, then there is not a situation where the planting hole receives water from surrounding soil during wet conditions (or sheds it during dry, the common problem with intact potting soil rootballs here).

Instead of trying to teach me a lesson maybe Mario should start by reading any pertinent book by Carl E. Whitcomb.

Texasredhead, you say "I take exception with the idea that the root flare can be burried in clay soil. Regardless of soil type, planting a tree like a telephone pole very simply in time will kill the tree." I can't read where ANYONE has suggested this - Ken, in fact said the opposite, "except they left out clay soil .. where you would plant it above the grade to insure air to the roots ...". He certainly did not suggest burying root flares, nor would any of the knowledgeable people posting here.

In general, I add a little extra phosphate to trees/shrubs planted locally, as the local soil for the most part is deficient in phosphorous (according to soil tests). I also add some organic fertilizer mixed into the soil at the bottom, and as I refill, so it's available to the roots once they have grown out into the soil. As is implied by several posters above, organic fertilizers are not immediately available to roots, and take time to become available, so the tree or shrub has time to grow roots and then take up any needed nutrients, as the fungi, bacteria, etc. in the soil make them available to the roots.

As has been said in other posts, grasses and perennials do better a bacterial-dominated environment, and trees and shrubs do better in a fungus dominated environment - hardwood and bark mulches are good for trees, grass and leaf mulches are good for forbs. That said, I think most of the plants most of us grow are pretty adaptable, and will grow under a wide range of conditions, as long as the bare minimum of needs are met - enough water, enough sun - with too much of either being as bad or worse than too little.

If the entire area that the tree roots will be growing into is amended - over an area approx. 15-20' in diameter by 18" deep - this is very different from amending the planting hole. If you can do this, it's probably a good idea, but most of us can't. A wide area of an organic (in the sense of decomposable, not as "certified"...) mulch will eventually have the effect of improving the soil under it - one reason to annually add an inch or so of mulch to the existing mulch and widen the area - which will, much more slowly, have the same effect as amending the soil.

Got a compost pile for leaves and clippings and a worm bin in it for kitchen scraps. Both slithering teeming red worm breeding mounds. Spreading this moist rich organic wormcasting over the root zone (but not touching the trunk). So far the trees that have gotten this treatment love it! We add free horse manure to the worm bin. After this autumn's leaf fall next spring will see a big volume of yummy wormcastings. Read this is the best fertilizer.

bboy...

No, the lesson needed to be mentioned.

You can offer the book idea to other folks, I've built a library that has what you wrote - as well as other information too.

Adding 1 more book to a library, would not have added the words in this thread, that I could add with my reply.

You posted a rule, so constrained, that a lesson needed to be added.

Gardengal's post touched on ammending surrounding soil earlier. That was handy, because it adds some flexibility and opens doors for individual solutions.

So I decided to make sure that the concept was crystal clear, so people don't get misdirected into thinking that there are not times when ammendments can be added.

"it is now being advocated to bareroot at planting...Wilting is held up as the main reason for not doing this."
this statement should read:
"it is now being advocated to bareroot at planting by one lone voice in the PNW...Dessication and death within hours is the main reason for not doing this."
We're having record setting heat and drought in the eastern half of the country. Some cities such as Atlanta are so dry they are considering water rationing. It is so powder dry here that even established trees are loosing their leaves and going dormant. We have had no frost yet. Contrast these conditions to Washington and Oregon.
The Truth About Tree Planting is that there is not one single truth at the expense of all others.
- time of year
-tree species
-tree size and age
-when was the last time the tree was transplanted?
-was the tree field grown?
-is the tree in a container, if so how long?
-was the tree grown from a seed, cutting or graft?
All of these factors must be considered when planting trees. Leyland Cypress is a popular screening tree. With all of that top resistance I cannot imagine planting them without staking the first year. "Fall is for Planting" is a great slogan but there are some trees that I would never plant in Fall such as Southern Magnolia. A newly planted magnolia will have its leaves dessicated by the winter wind. Smaller sizes have less transplant shock, we can agree on that. The reality is however municiple plantings are often specified as minimum 2" CAL. Commercial landscapers will not handle trees in small containers, there is no profit in it. Would you???
It is crystal clear to me when I read threads such as this that some posters have learned from experience and some have only book-learning. How is it that one poster can regurgitate what he reads on one obscure website and declare himself an authority? The ill-fated Puyallup Research Center is unheard of outside of Washington state. They are the ones making meaningless generalizations about barerooting finished landscape stock. We should rename this the Britney Spears Tree Planting Method.
Sam

Don't quite know how these threads seem to develope a life of their own. In my very first post I quoted an artical written by the noted garden writer Lee Reich. I,and others, have long advocated not ammending planting holes for trees and exposing the root flare. Now, if some of you want to bury the root flare in a big flower pot in the ground, more power to you. This entire tree board is rife with questions about why trees are dying or looking sickly. My son and I were installing some landscaping lighting at a home where a very large tree was being planted that required a crane. Root ball was easily 4 ft. in diameter. The landscaping crew dug a hole 6 ft. deep, left the burlap on and filled the hole with some bagged mix. We were working in the same area about a year later and saw the same crew taking out the dead tree.

QUOTE.....Don't quite know how these threads seem to develope a life of their own. In my very first post I quoted an artical written by the noted garden writer Lee Reich. I,and others, have long advocated not ammending planting holes for trees and exposing the root flare. Now, if some of you want to bury the root flare in a big flower pot in the ground, more power to you. This entire tree board is rife with questions about why trees are dying or looking sickly. My son and I were installing some landscaping lighting at a home where a very large tree was being planted that required a crane. Root ball was easily 4 ft. in diameter. The landscaping crew dug a hole 6 ft. deep, left the burlap on and filled the hole with some bagged mix. We were working in the same area about a year later and saw the same crew taking out the dead tree.

Sounds like that's a landscaping crew that needs some extra training.

Doesn't suprise me - I've seen just as bad or worse out here in Medford.

One of the biggest landscape outfits was planting street trees, leaving the wire basket on, putting 3" of river rock / drain rock in the bottom, and arranging the root barrier panels in a circular fashion like a tree pot without a bottom (unlike the city code for two parallel sections near the curb and sidewalk).

But they aren't going to plant hundreds of trees wrong anymore.

After the landscape company owner failed to heed the heads-up I gave him, I wasn't going to let him leave me with a bunch of trash to maintain 10 years down the line since 1/2 my work is tree pruning and care.

So I went to the developer, and the developer got the monkey-business squared away.

That's one landscape company owner against me now, but a bunch of landscape crew for me, and more capable. The crew thanked me for the delayed improvement. So more gained than lost.

One-on-one exchange is great. But I find that confrontation - or sometimes repetition of a concept - is often what is needed to make the difference.

Like when people say "not" or "never" regarding adding ammendments. That's just one more aspect of planting where the possibility of exceptions needs to be repeated.

I would agree with instructing people that in "most cases" ammendments are unneccessary or should be avoided. But withholding instruction about exceptions and special cases just doesn't seem to be the best way to go.

Great post and discussion. From what I've experienced, read, and been told everything in the article right one target. The article is online at http://www.oldhousejournal.net/magazine/2007/oct/Truth_about_TreePlanting.lasso

I have witnessed seedling growth rates much higher than larger b&b and potted trees. After a couple years of developing roots, the bareroot seedlings show unbelievable growth rate.

I had a post a couple months ago about watering young trees and the effects of drought on trees. I had been told by my grandfather (who studied botany for his PhD) that my 6000 seedling that have gone now through 2 years of record drought will have a better root system and future potential than if they had received good rain. It didn't make sense to me at the time. After thinking about it, if the roots are fat and happy with a lot of water, they have no incentive to grow. I was told something similar by a horticulturist when discussing amending backfill around trees - don't do it because they will have no incentive to move outside the "good stuff". He also told me to "water trees good at planting and from there on out don't water again unless it doesn't rain for a month".

See the link below. It is a study that proves water stressed seedling result in more root growth than well watered seedlings. My seedlings went a month or more without water multiple times over the past 2 brutal years. I admit some died, but the large majority that made it are now doing really well. According to the study, they have a better root system, and over the next couple years will likely show accelerated top growth due to the superior root system. The accelerated top growth achieved by a lot of watering is easy to see, however the more long term effects of growth rate (early root development) cannot be seen from the surface. The fact that we normally cannot see and compare this root growth makes this idea is difficult to understand.

Look at page 4 of the link below. The graphs are worth 1000 words. They consistently show approx 25% increase in root length for water stressed seedlings compared to well-watered seedlings. This proved to me that my grandpa was right, even though I thought at the time, he was crazy.

Morale of the story is. plant smaller trees, and after initial watering, let the trees find water on their own while developing a good root system. DonÂt use early top growth as an indicator of future/potential growth rate. I admit these ideas don't seem to pass the common sense test, but it's hard to argue with documented research. This non-common sense advice is probably why the article heading in Old House Journal states "Tree Planting 101 Hint: It's Not What You've Heard - To ensure beautiful trees for years to come, youÂre better off ignoring some popular gardening advice". The research quoted in the article is from the International Society of Arboriculture. I'm guessing they know a little bit about trees.

John

You're saying "trees" here but notice that they reported a different response between the two species, and that the one produced better plants (for intended use) when fertilized and watered well.

CONCLUSIONS
Hopea odorata and Mimusops elengi seedlings responded
differently to fertilizer application and water stress. M. elengi
seedlings were able to tolerate high fertilizer application (50
g), resulting in enhanced height but thinner diameter. This
characteristic make M. elengi less suitable for urban planting.
Growth of H. odorata seedlings was greatly promoted
through application of 30 g under well-watered conditions
(F3W0), resulting in a much more balanced growth in terms
of shoot:root ratio, which is vital for plants growing in the
harsh urban environment.

Bboy- Yes the results show some slight difference but you if look at the actual data in Figure 1, the graphs clearly show that for BOTH species:

-Water stressed trees result in more root growth than well watered trees.
-Adding fertilizer reduces root growth.

These two items are not common sense and are along the same lines as the article referred to in the first post. Yes, it is hard to overcome things we've assumed for so long.

It is clear that watering well and fertilizing both hurt root growth in early years. Top growth is increased with water and fertilizer, but you cannot argue that the most important piece to long term overall growth rate is early root development.

Once the roots become developed after a couple years, I agree slow release fertilzer and watering is good for overall tree growth. From everything I've read, heard, and experienced it sounds like the best plan is to:

AT PLANTING
-Don't amend soil in backfill
-Water thouroughly

AFTER PLANTING (YEARS 1-2)
-Don't water unless no rain for a month
-Don't fertilize
-Both of these will help root growth although it cannot be seen from the surface (see Figure 1 of link)

AFTER YEAR 2
-Slow release fertilizer and watering will cause exceptional top growth due to the now well developed root system

John

Bought a lot of 2 and 3 inch trunk size trees from a tree grower who also planted them because of the big heavy root ball. He did cut the twine holding the burlap wrap back away the first few inches of the ball but he didn't take off the wire basket. When I questioned this planting method he said that the wire basket would rust away in just a year or two. Now I have been told that is a big mistake. Does anyone know if there is something I can put in the ground that would speed up the rusting process without hurting the trees? They have been in the ground two years and the wire basket is still there. The trees have grown but they aren't nearly as nice as my little bare root trees. Lesson learned. Save money and get smaller bare root trees. And don't always believe the "pro"...

Nice to see this one get bumped! I agree with your findings Emmet. Years ago, I thought it was hogwash to advocate removing all the wire. Then, for a number of years, there was a table at the yearly Wisconsin Arborist Assoc. meetings displaying "disinterred" specimens that had died. Seeing is really believing, and there were many cases of strangulated roots to see, trying to grow through the wire baskets, and not being able to do a very good job of it. We now always remove these baskets when planting B&B stock. A simple bolt cutter is all that's needed. We have also moved towards almost exclusively bare-root stock for our street tree and park tree programs. Easier to handle, cheaper, and better results overall. Of course, the one drawback to planting bare root is the narrower window of time one can do this. But we manage to get about 700 in the ground per year with no problem.

+oM

Think about how fast roots develop and how fast wire rusts and the conclusion is obvious.

What takes place below the soil surface is never obvious. But digging this stuff up makes it so. Then, conclusions can be quickly reached!

+oM