Proper way to plant a tree ?

[tree MDS]

I'm new to tree planting and keep hearing contradicting thoughts on this, the nursery guy says leave the cage alone and that I'll kill it if I remove it-others say remove it. I know this should have been posted in the nursery section but this will get more views here and I'm doing the job tomoro. Of course I know the obvious things like don't plant too deep blah blah, just getting confused by this guy at the nursery because when I asked him about cutting the cage off he looked at me like I was from mars-seemed to make sense to me. Oh, its white pines, 9 of em 7 to 8' tall, any help would be appriciated guys, thanks in advance. MDS

 

[timber12]

Remove the basket or as much of it as possible. Try going to the Trees are good.org web site. When you purchase trees from a nursery, ask for trees that have been dug for only one growing season so that they won't be totally root bound. remember, the top of the root ball may need to be shaved down. Look for the trunk flare to find your proper planting depth. Do not stake them unless necessary.

 

[Adkpk]

I leave them on. Wrestling with the thing is going to more damage than good. They rust after a while. Say you were planting 100 ten footers with a crew or 10 guys and a backhoe. Are you going to cut them off and put the tree in the hole without the support. Case closed.

 

[treemandan]

I leave them on. Wrestling with the thing is going to more damage than good. They rust after a while. Say you were planting 100 ten footers with a crew or 10 guys and a backhoe. Are you going to cut them off and put the tree in the hole without the support. Case closed.

You are right. F that wire basket. Leave it on. TREES HEYAH, GET EM WHILE THEY ARE HOT! How many you want mister?
Naw, I ain't got a crew of ten cause its not how many anyway. If it were I would still open up that ball. They don't do so well in this clay around here.
Sure its OK, but when I drive by next time I want to see how much better it looks. After all I am going back to do more work.
Do you really need ten guys to plant 100 trees? How long did it take?

 

[Adkpk]

Do you really need ten guys to plant 100 trees? How long did it take?

Treeman, that was a hypothetical.:bang:

 

[treemandan]

I'm new to tree planting and keep hearing contradicting thoughts on this, the nursery guy says leave the cage alone and that I'll kill it if I remove it-others say remove it. I know this should have been posted in the nursery section but this will get more views here and I'm doing the job tomoro. Of course I know the obvious things like don't plant too deep blah blah, just getting confused by this guy at the nursery because when I asked him about cutting the cage off he looked at me like I was from mars-seemed to make sense to me. Oh, its white pines, 9 of em 7 to 8' tall, any help would be appriciated guys, thanks in advance. MDS

Well there you are. before I go any further I want to say that I am sure you are confused about a lot of things. Don't get mad, so am I.
Some of the things I am confused about is that you say you have been doing this work for 20 years? You do not know how to plant a tree? You do not know what it is that a little tree needs to become a big one? You know, they teach that in science class? I had some extra help from my parents at an early age but its not hard to figure out either.
"Not to deep blah blah blah"? You sound so interested in this I think you should just get 10 mexicans and have them do it. they will do such a great job and all you have to do is handle the money. Thing is - you aren't going to pay 10 mexicans to do a great job and they only do what you pay them to.
I hope you are still reading because this is where I enlighten you but first you must answer this question because I think you allready gave a price and got the job. Here is the question: How are you getting paid to plant them? Answer that and you will have your answer on how to do it. I hope I have been a big help.

 

[tree MDS]

Well there you are. before I go any further I want to say that I am sure you are confused about a lot of things. Don't get mad, so am I.
Some of the things I am confused about is that you say you have been doing this work for 20 years? You do not know how to plant a tree? You do not know what it is that a little tree needs to become a big one? You know, they teach that in science class? I had some extra help from my parents at an early age but its not hard to figure out either.
"Not to deep blah blah blah"? You sound so interested in this I think you should just get 10 mexicans and have them do it. they will do such a great job and all you have to do is handle the money. Thing is - you aren't going to pay 10 mexicans to do a great job and they only do what you pay them to.
I hope you are still reading because this is where I enlighten you but first you must answer this question because I think you allready gave a price and got the job. Here is the question: How are you getting paid to plant them? Answer that and you will have your answer on how to do it. I hope I have been a big help.

Yeah, as I was saying dan, blah, blah, blah, lol. Btw big help, but I think I've got it figured out with the help of an arb friend, I'm gonna leave the cage. Thanks guys.

 

[treemandan]

Treeman, that was a hypothetical.:bang:

Oh. Anyway i see your point . Big contractors have little choice in the matter.

 

[treemandan]

Yeah, as I was saying dan, blah, blah, blah, lol. Btw big help, but I think I've got it figured out with the help of an arb friend, I'm gonna leave the cage. Thanks guys.

Now we know the answer to that question I was asking.
Anyway I did want to say what's up, I would like to hear more about you. No joke either buddy.
20 years? how did you get started and what do you think now that you did? Was it really 20 years.
beleive it or not I mean all of what I say.

 

[tree MDS]

Now we know the answer to that question I was asking.
Anyway I did want to say what's up, I would like to hear more about you. No joke either buddy.
20 years? how did you get started and what do you think now that you did? Was it really 20 years.
beleive it or not I mean all of what I say.

I don't know about you dan, but its been alot of work-but its been my living 20 yrs honest and counting ,lol. Working on year 12 self employed and making strides, finally! Though its taking time!

 

[S Mc]

Tree MDS, good for you for asking. Sometimes we feel we should know something and therefore are reluctant to ask for specifics. If you haven't had to do something, then there was never any reason to learn it correctly.

This is what we do on balled in burlap with cages. We AT LEAST cut away the top 1/3 of the cage and burlap. How much we take off depends on the formation of the root ball and how firm it is. Sometimes they have been recently dug and are virtually bareroot so we are careful about taking the whole thing apart. (Freshly dug b-n-b trees can have significantly less root systems than true bareroot.) Leaving the wire cages completely intact can cause damage to the roots and/or trunk in the future; thereby shortening or compromising the longevity and health of the tree.

Although there are some instructions in the industry now that state to take everything off so you can distribute out the roots in a manner that assures that they won't girdle the trunk, I must confess that I have been reluctant to go that extreme.

By the way, the cage does NOT go away in this century (at least in our area). We have ground lots of wire cages in our stump grinding career that looked perfectly fine. No rust.

Sylvia

 

[Toddppm]

We plant trees on a regular basis and always try ro remove as much of the basket and burlap as possible. It depends on what kind and how well it was dug too. You have to be really careful how loose the rootball is. If the trunk moves around too much the roots will separate from the main rootball and dry out/kill the tree very fast.
The cages don't rust away very much here either. I've seen tons of trees that never grew decent roots out of the burlap but still grew a healthy looking trunk and crown until they fell over or suddenly died.

 

[treemandan]

I don't know about you dan, but its been alot of work-but its been my living 20 yrs honest and counting ,lol. Working on year 12 self employed and making strides, finally! Though its taking time!

i guess there sure are a lot of strides, i will give you that. ever get the feeling that its much more work than fun?
**** I didn't have to give you anything, this stuff is hard. you sound like you are only in it for the money though.
imagine a nice lady like you who cares for what she does telling this guy how to do it.

 

[treemandan]

Tree MDS, good for you for asking. Sometimes we feel we should know something and therefore are reluctant to ask for specifics. If you haven't had to do something, then there was never any reason to learn it correctly.

This is what we do on balled in burlap with cages. We AT LEAST cut away the top 1/3 of the cage and burlap. How much we take off depends on the formation of the root ball and how firm it is. Sometimes they have been recently dug and are virtually bareroot so we are careful about taking the whole thing apart. (Freshly dug b-n-b trees can have significantly less root systems than true bareroot.) Leaving the wire cages completely intact can cause damage to the roots and/or trunk in the future; thereby shortening or compromising the longevity and health of the tree.

Although there are some instructions in the industry now that state to take everything off so you can distribute out the roots in a manner that assures that they won't girdle the trunk, I must confess that I have been reluctant to go that extreme.

By the way, the cage does NOT go away in this century (at least in our area). We have ground lots of wire cages in our stump grinding career that looked perfectly fine. No rust.

Sylvia

The sob has been doing this for 20 years, it ain't like its his first day. 20 years! that's a long time to go around thinking you know but don't. that's a long time of cutting down trees and never putting one back!

 

[ATH]

..........the nursery guy says leave the cage alone and that I'll kill it if I remove it-others say remove it......

Just curious (not necessairly asking you MDS, anybody who wants to say): What about removing the wire cage will possibly kill the tree? I have never heard that one before -- it also piqued my interest as I always remove the cage. It is really not that hard if you have bolt cutters - if I was planting 100 on my own I would do it.

One tree I planted last fall is dead - buds never even swelled. I think I will pull it - maybe airknife it out to have a closer look at the root system. I am quite confident it never dried out. Maybe I should ignore ANSI standards and ISA and leave the cage on?

 

[M.D. Vaden]

I remove the wire baskets, even if they have to be cut away in the hole. The damage roots in the same way that wire can girdle or impede trunk and limb growth.

Seen a lot of damage from wire baskets since 1980 when I started in this trade.

My biggest "beef" right now, is with these darn root bags that some nurseries are using. Never had to fight to remove material so hard. The balls are fracturing from the removal of fabric, more than I'd have expected. Much unlike burlap.

The attitude of the nursery guy shows he has not been involved much with the remedial work caused by the metal. In other words, they don't understand.

Not all nurserymen, but plenty, handle trees like merchandise, not trees.

 

[tree MDS]

The sob has been doing this for 20 years, it ain't like its his first day. 20 years! that's a long time to go around thinking you know but don't. that's a long time of cutting down trees and never putting one back!

Yer really testing me with this one dan, lol. Around here most tree services don't plant trees, its just a new venture for me because I have a tractor/backhoe and I advertize "replacement plantings available". But the trees are in with the cage intact and they look awesome too. I cleared about 1100 on that job with one guy and the tractor so I'm happy- I just hope they live because its all crappy fill, rocks and pavement, right way to do it in retrospect would have been to dig the hole twice as big and put in topsoil + stake them, but I did'nt know that crap was under there and the guy would'nt have been able to afford that kind of job anyway, I was surprized he went for this. I did add some topsoil I had next door at the shop here and there because they wanted them just right on this slope so the root ball was exposed on the backside some where the front was just right. And yes dan I am in it for the money! you betcha!!

 

[treemandan]

Yer really testing me with this one dan, lol. Around here most tree services don't plant trees, its just a new venture for me because I have a tractor/backhoe and I advertize "replacement plantings available". But the trees are in with the cage intact and they look awesome too. I cleared about 1100 on that job with one guy and the tractor so I'm happy- I just hope they live because its all crappy fill, rocks and pavement, right way to do it in retrospect would have been to dig the hole twice as big and put in topsoil + stake them, but I did'nt know that crap was under there and the guy would'nt have been able to afford that kind of job anyway, I was surprized he went for this. I did add some topsoil I had next door at the shop here and there because they wanted them just right on this slope so the root ball was exposed on the backside some where the front was just right. And yes dan I am in it for the money! you betcha!!

Oh that's bad buddy, real bad. You have exposed root balls on a slope? The whole job sounds like it was done by someone who never worked with trees or even a tractor. I mean: don't you know hat you are going to find before you dig? Did you even call utilities?
hey don't get me wrong, you went with what the customer could pay and wanted to pay. As long as he knows what's up your OK, I guess. I know, I know, you do what you can. Strick follower of that law I am.
I would at least dump something on those exposed balls real quick to help them out. Actually, I would have stopped when I saw the crappy fill and went to get some good stuff. If you cleared 1100 in one day( after materials only) like that you could afford to. Its not much work, but it is work.
I am not saying that every tree serivice should offer planting but they should at least know how. you are all acting like you don't and expect someone to tell you just because you want to know for yourself and profit from it. get a book, I didn't really ask any questions until my 15 year.

 

[Dadatwins]

Years ago the wire was made of metal and it would rust away and the burlap was actual burlap and would rot away. Now the baskets are made of galvanized steel that last a long time and the burlap is usually a plastic material that last even longer. This is to help the nursery when moving the trees around and loading them so the root balls did not fall apart,it is not to help the tree. Typically try to remove as much of the 'packaging' as possible without disturbing the root ball. On large project remove the material while the tree is in the hole, if you are digging the hole properly by going wide this should not be a problem. If you are digging just enough to fit the round ball in the round hole, well now you probably have another problem.

 

[tree MDS]

Oh that's bad buddy, real bad. You have exposed root balls on a slope? The whole job sounds like it was done by someone who never worked with trees or even a tractor. I mean: don't you know hat you are going to find before you dig? Did you even call utilities?
hey don't get me wrong, you went with what the customer could pay and wanted to pay. As long as he knows what's up your OK, I guess. I know, I know, you do what you can. Strick follower of that law I am.
I would at least dump something on those exposed balls real quick to help them out. Actually, I would have stopped when I saw the crappy fill and went to get some good stuff. If you cleared 1100 in one day( after materials only) like that you could afford to. Its not much work, but it is work.
I am not saying that every tree serivice should offer planting but they should at least know how. you are all acting like you don't and expect someone to tell you just because you want to know for yourself and profit from it. get a book, I didn't really ask any questions until my 15 year.

Dan, can you read? I covered the exposed portion of the root ball with soil from my shop next door you moron! says it plain and simple and plain! lol. As far as not being able to run a tractor, well, lol.