Planting maple trees

[SAWFISH]

Planting maple trees (pictures attached)

I have just bought 3 maple trees, a crimson king, a golden maple and a varigated maple, all 3 are about 10 foot tall with the base about 1-1/2 to 2" thick. What is the proper way to plant these trees in the ground? Currently they are in plastic containers, maybe 15-20 gal? I have read about a root girdleing problem that may harm these tree if not planted properly? Should I carefully break apart the root ball and inspect for girdled roots and try to straighten them if possible? Any help on the correct way to check and fix problems is much appreciated as I am wanting to plant these soon.

Thanks, Brian

 

[computeruser]

A pretty good overview of the things to know about planting trees:

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/planting/index.htm

 

[treeseer]

as you see, Job #1 is Find the Flare! If you can not find the flare, take them back.

also check the Buying and Planting info in the link below.

 

[maxburton]

Here's a quick rundown:

As mentioned, you must find the trunk flare. This is the point at which the trunk rapidly increases in diameter. You can see such flares in trees that grew from seed without being moved; a large flare will lead to the stem. This flare is part of the trunk and should be above ground. You may have to remove soil from the root ball to expose the trunk flare.

Dig a hole deep enough to have the trunk flare at the soil line, but no deeper. It is far better to dig too shallow and have to dig deeper than to dig too deep and then backfill.

The hole must only be that deep in the center, where the tree will go. Taper the bottom off so that it reaches ground level far enough out to make the hole three times the diameter of the root ball. It will be a big hole.

Backfill the hole only with soil dug out of the hole. Don't amend it. Don't compact the soil with your boots or a tool; poke it with the shovel blade to set it into the hole without packing it. Leftover soil can be used to make a temporary ring around the tree which can contain water. Water the tree in for a while, and put two inches of mulch around it, at least out to the furthest branch.

Hope that helps!

 

[treeseer]

This flare is part of the trunk and should be above ground. You may have to remove soil from the root ball to expose the trunk flare.

Very True--you may have to cut roots to find it, too. Measure the distance from the flare to the bottom of the ball--that is your functional root volume. If it's not adequate for the crown, take it back!!

Taper the bottom off so that it reaches ground level far enough out to make the hole three times the diameter of the root ball. It will be a big hole.

Tapering is recommended in the BMP's, but I think this is wrong, and there is no research to support it. The deeper the hole is away from the trunk, the more likely that sinker roots will be formed, and the less likely that horizontal roots will tend toward the surface. What reason is there to taper?

Backfill the hole only with soil dug out of the hole. Don't amend it. !

This is good advice, in good soil. Most of us are planting in poor urban soil, which benefits from added organic matter and whatever else it is lacking. There is no harm in amending IF you blend it well, so it gradually tapers off in quality toward the edge of the hole.

 

[SAWFISH]

What are your opinions on this maple? I think it should go back.
You can see how deep it was planted in the plastic tub. I do not like how it is at an angle comming out of the ground.

Thanks, Brian

 

[treeseer]

Only in the last pic do I see what looks like 2 buttress roots--the flare. You still need to remove dirt from the trunk to find the entire flare, but it looks pretty close to grade and that's good.

The bend does not look too severe from here.

 

[SAWFISH]

The root ball on this one was much smaller than the others, so I am thinking to go exchange it for a new one. The place that I got it from said that they got them in 2 years ago and they were bare rooted at the time so the root ball is not going to be as big-- does that make sense. Will the tree always have that angle at the base? or will it go away?
Thanks for the input

 

[Grenfell]

Hey Sawfish,

I posted a very similar thread about planting and sourcing a new sugar maple. I got a lot of excellent information from forum members, particularily treeseer and Mike Maas (not to discredit the other contributors as well).

I had similar problems - tree planted too deep, adventitious roots, etc. In fact, your problems/questions are eerily similar.

I decided to transplant a wild tree - being fed up with crappy nursery stock. You may want to read through a bit of the thread I linked to above, it may shed some more light on things for you. Good luck with the tree!

P.S. - Every tree I see for sale at major centres seems to suffer from this(ese) same issue(s). The donor rootstock is always buried too deeply, the graft union seems to never be fully healed (due in part to sometimes awkward pruning cuts) and the root base is bent. Coincidence?

 

[treeseer]

trunks straighten; bends disappear.

Was the tree in a container/ did you check for circling roots?

 

[SAWFISH]

The tree was in a container 15-20 gal? I did not see any circling roots, in fact the root ball was much smaller on this one than on the other 2 trees. I did not feel comfortable keeping it sinse it was going to be in the area of my garage so I took it back and got another one. The new on has a much larger root ball and some of the roots were starting to circle so I carefully broke part of the ball apart and straightend the roots out. What should the watering schedule be on a newly planted tree?

Thanks for all the input

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

trunks straighten; bends disappear.

In this case I tend to disagree. The bend we often see in nursery trees at ground level, is due to the plant being dragged along the ground by the mechanical tree planter. A machine sits on the back of a tractor that holds hundreds of bare root young trees. Then as the tractor moves forward through the field, the trees are poked into the ground. For whatever reason, some trees go straight in and others end up with their roots all swooped back to one side. One explanation I heard was the tractor speed is too high.
This tree looks like it may be one of these trees with the root system all to one side. If it is, the tree's root structure may never be good.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The tree was in a container 15-20 gal? I did not see any circling roots, in fact the root ball was much smaller on this one than on the other 2 trees. I did not feel comfortable keeping it sinse it was going to be in the area of my garage so I took it back and got another one. The new on has a much larger root ball and some of the roots were starting to circle so I carefully broke part of the ball apart and straightend the roots out. What should the watering schedule be on a newly planted tree?

Thanks for all the input

Did you notice that trees in 1 gal pots are about $20, and then the trees in 5 gal pots are about $60?
The idea is the bigger pots have not only bigger trees, but bigger root systems. The funny thing is when the 1 gal pots get root bound (too many roots for the pot size, and all growing in a circle), they pull them out of the pot and put them in a bigger pot. Bingo! They just made $40 on 4 gal of soil and 5 minutes time.
The real problem is the tree was probably too deep in the little pot, and when they move it to the big pot, they bury even deeper to stabilize it in the new pot. Plus, the roots are already all circled up and will tend to keep growing in circles.
Think about a fork full of spaghetti all twisted up. Now think about that ball of roots as each one grows in diameter. They become one big ball of decaying wood, with no way to expand in diameter, so they choke each other off and die.

Your pictures didn't show what the roots looked like, or where the root flare is. I see one small adventitious root, and that's about it.
Are the roots all circled up like the picture?
When you shop for a tree, first think about the roots, then if they look good, check the above ground part.