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BARE-ROOT
Bare-root
stock, if handled properly, is one of the best bargains. Survival
rates of 95% to 99% are typical. It is an economical means of acquiring
nursery stock because: the plants are grown in the ground like a
field crop, they are removed from the ground with efficient machinery or
cheap labor, they are stored in refrigerated and humidified warehouses,
the freight costs from the grower to your nursery are small because of
the absence of heavy soil and they are held in beds of sand or potting
media awaiting your purchase. If their roots are not allowed to become
dry and die anytime between being dug up and being placed in your landscape
or orchard, all will be well. However, most failures with bare-root
stock occur after the ultimate consumer (you) has acquired it. Dig
the square hole before you go to the nursery. As insurance, take
an old wet blanket (no, not him) wrapped in a tarp to place around the
precious bundles at the nursery. Drive straight home, don't leave the plants
in the back of the truck or in the trunk any longer than is necessary.
Place the wrapped bundles outdoors, in the shade and protected from wind.
Remove each plant, one at a time, from its moist cocoon. Place it
so the top of the soil stain on the stem is at soil line. Make sure
the square hole is deep enough, if not, place the plant back in the bucket
and keep digging. Cut off all damaged roots. Use the recommended
number of 21-gram, 2-year fertilizer tablets. Fill the hole carefully
with unamended soil identical to that in which it will grow (without the
bigger rocks). Take care to spread out each root horizontally as
the backfilling reaches its level. Water it in with root stimulator
solution or dilute water-soluble fertilizer. Till the ground 6 inches
deep in a 3 foot radius around the newly planted tree and cover the tilled
circle with 4 inches of a shredded hardwood mulch. Certain fruit
trees must be topped at planting time, most other bare-root plants are
not pruned at all. Do not over-water the plants, strive to keep the
soil just moist.
BALLED-AND-BURLAPPED
A balled-and-burlapped
plant, like a bare-root plant, is economically grown in the ground. It
is dug manually or mechanically with an intact ball of the soil in which
it has grown. To keep the natural soil ball entire, it is wrapped
with real burlap or a woven plastic sheeting held in place, with quickly-rusting
nails and it is further secured with sisal or polypropylene twine or a
wire basket. The root balls must never dry out and they must never
be fractured. A broken ball means severed roots and a diminished
chance of survival. A balled-and-burlapped plant must NEVER be handled
by the stem. Handle only the bound ball of soil. The root balls
of balled-and-burlapped stock are normally buried in moist mulch or sand
while being displayed for sale. Balled-and-burlapped stock is more
expensive than bare- root because of the increased labor costs of digging
and wrapping and also much higher freight costs.
When planting a balled-and-burlapped plant, dig the hole 90% the height
of the root ball; for example, a 9 inch deep hole for a 10 inch high root
ball. The lateral dimensions of the square hole should be 3 to 4
times the width of the root ball. Lifting the plant by the root ball, place
it in the hole. Use the recommended number of 21-gram, 2-year fertilizer
tablets. if it is wrapped in real, biodegradable burlap, backfill
halfway up the root ball with unamended soil identical to that in which
it will grow. Cut all the twine from the upper hemisphere of the
root ball and peel back the natural burlap. Finish backfilling the
hole with more unamended soil. Water it in with a root stimulator
solution or dilute water-soluble fertilizer. Till the ground 6 inches
deep in a 3 foot radius beyond the edge of the square hole. Cover
the tilled area with 4 inches of a shredded hardwood mulch. Should
the ball come wrapped in a woven plastic fabric, place the root ball in
the hole. Remove all the twine and woven plastic sheeting from the
sides and top of the root ball by cutting it away. Leave a disc of
woven plastic sheeting at the bottom of the root ball. Backfill as
described above. Do not prune balled-and-burlapped stock planted
during the dormant season. Do not over-water. Water newly-planted
balled-and-burlapped plants when the soil of the original root ball is
dry 1 inch down.
GROW-BAGS
Ain't
technology sumthin? Imagine growing plants in the ground with their
roots contained in a special bag. Grow-bags consist of a solid plastic
bottom sewn and/or fused to cylindrical walls of a root-constricting, man-made,
felt-like fabric. Plants growing in grow-bags can be removed from
the ground even during the growing season. The cylindrical bags are
dug up by hand or machine. Unearthed grow-bags can be stored in moist
sand or mulch, but are usually planted immediately. They are planted
within a few days either in pots or where they are to grow for the rest
of their life. In either case, the fabric sides and the plastic disc
at the bottom are removed completely. When planting a tree or shrub
in a grow-bag, dig the square hole 90% to 95% the height of the root ball.
The width of the square hole should be 3 to 4 times the diameter of the
root ball. Use the recommended number of 21-gram, 2-year fertilizer
tablets. Backfill the square hole with the unamended soil from the
site. Till the ground 6 inches deep for 3 feet beyond the edges of
square hole and cover the tilled area with 4 inches of a shredded hardwood
mulch.
MANUFACTURED
BALLS
These
monstrosities are normally seen in the temporarily fenced-in, parking lot
nursery sales yards of "value merchandisers" who sell plants only during
the peak spring season. They consist of bare root plants whose roots
are mangled, twisted and enclosed in peat-moss-filled plastic sausages
or cardboard boxes. Their shelf life is very short. Their life
expectancy, once in the landscape, is usually measured in days. May
they rest in peace.
CONTAINERIZED
A containerized
plant was originally grown in the ground and harvested either bare-root,
balled-and-burlapped or in a grow-bag. They are potted and held by
a nursery until their roots form a cohesive root ball. These plants
incorporate the economies associated with growing in the ground with the
convenience to the consumer of being acquired in pots. The major
problem with containerized plants is in the case of those which come from
bare-root stock. Those who pot them up seldom take the time to position
the roots correctly as the pot is filled with soil. This leads either to
all the roots being pressed together in the center of the pot and/or to
very long roots being left coiled around the sides of the pot to form girdling
roots in the future. Such stock should be root pruned before being
planted. A containerized tree or shrub is planted in a square hole
exactly as deep as the root ball and at least 3 to 4 times its width.
Use the recommended number of 21-gram, 2-year fertilizer tablets.
Backfill the hole with unamended soil identical to that which exists on
the site (discard the bigger rocks). Till the ground 6 inches deep
in a 3 foot span beyond the edges of the hole and cover the tilled ground
with 4 inches of a shredded hardwood mulch.
CONTAINER GROWN
These
are grown, obviously, in containers from the time the seed is sown or the
cutting rooted. The plants are stepped up from 2 1/4 inch "rose"
pots to 1 gallon black plastic pots to 2, 3 or 5 gallon black plastic pots
and a few further stepped up into 7, 10 or 15 gallon pots. Some large
shrubs or trees are again stepped up into 20 gallon or larger containers.
Plants grown in containers usually take longer to reach a certain size
than field-grown plants. This longer time to reach a marketable size
plus the costs of stepping up to ever larger containers plus the cost of
potting media (not soil) plus the costs of frequent irrigation and constant
fertilization plus the costs of providing winter protection (even for otherwise
hardy plants) make container-grown plants more expensive than field-grown
plants. Container-grown plants are planted exactly like containerized
plants.
BOXED
Boxed
specimens are started from container-grown plants or are containerized
in wooden boxes. Boxed nursery stock is also stepped up to ever larger
boxes. Such plants are usually sold in 24", 30", 36" or 48" boxes.
Boxed trees in 96" and larger sizes are also available, they do, however,
sell for thousands of dollars. Much of the stock produced in boxes is trees
disparagingly referred to as "Lollipop Trees". They are the specimens
with a single, straight trunk and a symmetrical ball of foliage which some
Landscape Architects specify routinely. They are the trees one sees
arrayed in a boring and unnatural geometric grid at the entrance to a subdivision
or office park or by an office building. Aside from their very high
cost, boxed specimens very often carry a fatal flaw. If the plants
are not stepped up often enough and if corrective root pruning is not performed
at such times, the roots will stay in the shape of the box and never leave
those dimensions, even after being in the ground several years. Such
trees never become well-established and they are, regrettably, quite short-lived.
Do not plant a boxed specimen before first inspecting its root system.
Remove the walls of the box and wash away the outer layer of soil from
one side of the root ball and reject any boxed plant which has only 3/8
inch or larger roots exposed. The absence of fine roots indicates
possible problems in the future. Boxed plants are planted exactly
like plants in grow-bags. Watch their water needs closely for the
first year. over-watering will kill them quickly in our heavy, clay
soils.
SOD
Advertising
to the contrary, there are not different grades of sod, as far as I am
concerned. Sod consists of at least 99.99% of the specific grass
clone being purchased, with enough of a soil layer to bear the roots necessary
to survive transplanting. "Sod" consists of two or more kinds of
grass or it is that which harbors noxious weeds like Nut Sedge, Common
Bermudagrass, etc. It is produced by sloppy grass farms. I
suggest you buy sod, not "sod". Sod should be delivered to the planting
site within 24 hours of being cut. It must be placed on the ground
within 48 hours of being cut. No exceptions. Sod is placed
on graded, weed-free top soil which is moist 1/2 inch down. The perennial
weeds, like Johnsongrass, Nut Sedge or Common Bermudagrass are removed
in the months before sodding, with a glyphosate-containing herbicide.
Sod is ideally placed by two persons with a third person watering it with
a hand-held hose as soon as it hits the ground. The first course
is placed against the front curb or foundation of the house. Blocks
in subsequent courses are placed with their seams offset. Once the
topsoil and sod are very wet, they are rolled numerous times with a roller
as least 1/2 full of water. The sod is to be watered often until
the rectangles cannot be picked up because rooting has occurred.
Afterwards, the lawn is watered whenever the blades of grass first show
evidence of wilting in the morning. To achieve deeper water penetration,
a lawn is watered on 2 consecutive mornings and not watered again until
evidence of wilting first appears in the morning. |