Plant Your Trees Like a Pro: Tips from the Experts at Beautiful Trees

Speaker 1  (00:08)
This is the beautiful trees, podcast, and I’m your host Jen Llewellyn I am a horticulturalist, biologist and consulting arborist, and this is my co. Host.

Speaker 2  (00:18)
Joel Anderson, I’m consulting our briston, horticulturalist as well.

Speaker 1  (00:22)
And today we are sitting in early June 2025, we’ve had a slow start to the spring, but we are up and going now we’ve finally got some warm temperatures. And today we’re going to be talking about planting a tree like a pro, and this is actually a pretty popular topic planting. Trees.

Speaker 1  (00:44)
So we really wanted to give our listeners. Some really detailed, really juicy facts on how to really help trees successfully establish and minimizing transplant shock and for some listeners, if there’s anybody out there, who knows a wonderful Canadian gardener named mark Cullen and actually his son too Ben Cullen, I was interviewed a few years ago on their wonderful podcast, called the green file. And do check that out if you haven’t heard any of their episodes.

Speaker 1  (01:17)
They are wonderful, they’ve got so many wonderful guests that they’ve interviewed on there, but we talked about this in detail, planting trees like a pro, and it was such a popular topic we thought. We should talk about it here today, for all of our listeners. So we’ve got kind of a 12 step process that we wanted to hit some of the major points that might be some things that maybe you didn’t necessarily think about, when you are getting ready to plant a tree.

Speaker 2  (01:46)
Yeah, so having more success with planting trees and having them survive and healthy, so that they’re not struggling in their new environment and that there’s not damage caused to them during the transport and transplanting into the new location is really important too.

Speaker 1  (02:02)
In our job, you know, we go out to a lot of sites every year. And we look at transplant success. And we see a lot of unsuccessful, and in a lot of times those trees are struggling because they were improperly planted.

Speaker 1  (02:16)
So today, we’re going to dispel all of those improper planting techniques. We are going to give you some really good information, and you are going to be able to plant trees like a pro after listening to this podcast

Speaker 2  (02:30)
And I think that’s the goal of everybody who’s planting trees or establishing a landscape is they want their trees to do well, and that’s the investment that they’re making is to have the trees and shrubs and any other plants do well. So making sure they have all the right components. They need to start

Speaker 1  (02:47)
That’s right. It is it’s a huge investment in both you know, funds and also energy and time and so we want um it trees to be as successful as possible. We need more trees, I think everybody would agree with that statement and we really need more canopy cover, especially in our urban areas.

Speaker 1  (03:06)
So here comes point number one. Get locates.

Speaker 2  (03:12)
Yes, very important to start off and do it right letter locates locates our ears. Locating the utilities that are buried under the ground by a service in Ontario that comes out and marks the ground with locates art and as well send diagrams to the first news request that locates so that they know where. The gas and the hydro and telephone and bell Lines are under the ground water and sewer can also be an issue.

Speaker 2  (03:44)
But they’re usually deeper than what we would dig to plant a tree, but you still want to know where they are located.

Speaker 1  (03:51)
So technically speaking, gas lines are supposed to be 45 cm under the ground hydro supposed to be 60 cm, which is you know, 2 feet under the ground telephone lines or could be as shallow as 30 cm, which is only a foot. Although we’ve certainly found them much more shallow than that, and it’s just no fun, it’s just no fun to take out the phone line, especially

Speaker 2  (04:14)
Look at the the internet.

Speaker 1  (04:16)
We’re going to cable eye yes, and water and sewer line typically are one and a 1/2 to 2 m, but not always.

Speaker 2  (04:23)
No, not always where you get in locations that have a less soil volume say, like muskoka and areas like that, that have a lot of rock, the distance from the surface down to where the sewer gas anything like that could be, could be a lot shallower than what it’s expected, right?

Speaker 1  (04:38)
Yeah, because they’re not going to blast that out for a surface line. When you’ve got the eggs, the bedrock’s depth is so shallow, so just air on the side of caution, the place to call or the website to go on is called Ontario one call those words spelled right out Ontario 1 call.ca.

Speaker 2  (05:02)
Yeah, and it’s a service that they provide from municipality stuff and come like utilities coming into the properties they’ll mark where they are so that they don’t have a problem where somebody hits a gas line or something like that and it becomes a situation. So they’re funded by utilities and everything. To come out and do that as a free service.

Speaker 1  (05:24)
Yeah, so it’s actually free. It’s at no cost to you as a property owner and they are pretty responsive. And they have actually I found in the last year or 2, their response rate has gone app and it’s not usually a very long time that we have to wait to get these located

Speaker 2  (05:39)
No, they really have reduced the response time down, and I think that was a mandate that they were so that people weren’t digging without the locates. It was mandated that they get there quicker, so people were getting frustrated with long weights.

Speaker 1  (05:51)
So do yourself a favor Ontario one call dot and just make sure that you’re not taking anywhere even if you’re digging by hand trouble, it’s just really, really a good idea. Okay, so point number 2 water the tree first before you plant it. So whether that tree is in the container, whether it’s in a wire basket, whether it’s bald in burlap field soil in a small little ball water the tree first, because the tree’s been sitting there.

Speaker 1  (06:21)
You don’t even know how long necessarily if you’ve just brought it in from a say, a garden center or whatever. So you just don’t know, so it’s always always best to water the root Paul.

Speaker 2  (06:32)
And the root balls stayed together better with some moisture in it during the transplant and moving it around and getting it placed and straight. So the important part is to make sure that it has water while it’s being used in the location, waiting to be planted and then water it before it goes into the hole it. Also is easier to water the ball We have access to all the sides of it.

Speaker 1  (06:58)
Okay, step number 3, find the root flare or the trunk flare, and this is the part of the stem the trunk of the tree you’ll notice if you walk in the woods, you’ll notice that when you look at trees that are naturally occurring, that be the trunk will flare out at the base where it meets the soil almost like a skirt, and that’s where the trunk becomes the root system, and it needs to flare out. It naturally flares out into a horizontal root system, and if it Doesn’t do that, then it’s not growing properly.

Speaker 1  (07:34)
So we need that root that trunk flare or root flare to flare out right at the soil line because that tissue around that part of the tree is covered in bark and bark, breeds trees breathe through their bark and not a lot of people know that. There’s actually specialized cells in the bark, called lentice cells, where trees actually breathe do gas exchange, there’s processes physiological processes under the bark, whereby the tree is actually undergoing respiration. Just like we do it, they need to breathe, and so when we cover this.

Speaker 1  (08:11)
The root flare, or this trunk flare up with soil or mulch or landscape fabric or rocks or anything, we are reducing the tree’s ability to breathe through its bark, and that means that if the tissue underneath can’t have access to free air that it’s going to become anaerobic. It’s going to become toxic, it can’t grip rid of the carbon dioxide and the tissue under that bark, that’s covered up by again, soil or mulch. Landscape fabric rock, it’s gonna die.

Speaker 1  (08:43)
And so if the tissue under the bark dies, that means that any photosynthes that are there being produced in the canopy can’t get down to the root system, any water and nutrients that are being absorbed by the new root system cannot get back up into the canopy, and so this is a huge negative impact, this is, I think the number one problem that we see in improper planting, or even improper tree maintenance where people are piling soil and mulch, right up against The edge of the tree so one of the rules of thumb is when I’m planting a tree or maintaining a tree.

Speaker 1  (09:29)
I like to put my hands around the root flare, the top of that root flare, or you could also call it the trunk flare, essentially, I want to be able to put my hands around that. Region and it should be completely free and open to the air, not covered in anything, and then I know that that tree is at the right depth at the right depth.

Speaker 2  (09:49)
Yeah, I think the thing that we need to visualize or realize is that most of the roots of a tree are in the top 12 to 18 inches of soil, so those roots are going to want to expand out at that level and the roots that are supplying all the nutrients and water and everything to the trees are in that top layer of soil and If we plant the tree at a different level, then those roots can’t expand out into the soil where they need to be. And it creates a lot of stress on the tree, trying to put roots out and causes a lot of issues as far as future trunk development and can cause grilling roots and all kinds.

Speaker 2  (10:28)
Of things.

Speaker 1  (10:29)
So in that top layer of soil like say the first you know 30 to 45 cm, that’s where the feeder roots are the fibrous root system. So those are the roots that are actively pulling in water and dissolved nutrients in that water, and then assimilating that as tissue into the tree through the photosynthes, as well, but it’s not all the roots, there are deeper anchoring routes, there’s a lot of tree species that will be Put roots, you know much deeper into the ground to anchor and also to store carbon, that’s made up in the canopy through photosynthesis, but it’s a really good point that you bring up Joel is that when we do see soil or luch or even landscape fabric, but especially soil and molts.

Speaker 1  (11:18)
When they’re piled up to the base of the trunk, where that root flare needs to be exposed, knowing that the bark is a way for the tree to actually breathe and have gas exchange with the air. When we do pile extra materials up against that tree, we find adventitious roots and adventitious roots are specially roots that are forming growing right out of the trunk that should not be that the true root system is lower, but quite often will we excavate the base of the tree and we’ll actually do this professionally, and we’re looking for the root flare trunk flare.

Speaker 1  (11:59)
We’ll often find these adventitious roots that are growing through this extra mulch, that’s been piled app against the base of the tree, and it’s like Joel was saying those adventitious roots that are just formed there in the landscape because of too much mulch, those can go around. And around and around the tree and as they get bigger and as the stem gets bigger, those adventurous circling roots become girdling roots. So they’ll actually choke the stem of the tree.

Speaker 1  (12:29)
And it’s years down the road, but instead of your beautiful sugar, Maple, blasting you know, generations of your family, it might last, you know, as much as maybe 7 or 8 years before those adventurous roots start to choke off the main stem.

Speaker 2  (12:45)
You can also find those adventitious fruits when you get the tree from the nursery too. Because sometimes in the nursery, the soil is piled up against the trunks during tilling and stuff like that to maintain weed control. And then once the tree comes, sometimes like I’ve noticed it on a few varieties of trees that you can just print them off during planting, and you know, put the tree back to where its proper height is with the root flare.

Speaker 2  (13:13)
And those roots that are growing out of the trunk above the root flare, as long as they’re not too big, can be pruned right off at the trunk.

Speaker 1  (13:21)
Yeah, so they can be proved up if they’re say less than 2 and a 1/2 centimeters in diameter, hopefully significantly less than 2 and a 1/2 centimeters, so in ancient diameter, if they’re less than that, they can be pruned off if they are a centimeter or over and there’s more than. One of them you’d want to take, you know, prune, 1 off one year prune, another 1 off another year, but typically we don’t see that we usually see really small diameter adventurous roots. So this is why it’s really important and no one really talks about this, but now that you are going to be able to plant trees like a pro, you need to know this, because this is the number 1 problem that we see when trees are planted improperly, they might be even planted at the right depth, or that you can see the trunk player the root player.

Speaker 1  (14:06)
And then somebody comes along and piles a whole. Bunch of molte up on it because they don’t want the weed whacker to hurt it. Or they think that they’re doing a good thing.

Speaker 1  (14:15)
And we call this too much love it’s a bit smothering. It’s kind of like you know, smothering kind of love, but we just have to remember trees breathe through their bark, so we should never be putting anything through on the trunk flare or the top of the root flare. And then once we you know, it becomes a root system.

Speaker 1  (14:33)
Yeah, the other root system is supposed to be in the soil so you can do this, you can you know, pull away any soil that’s on the top of a root ball? Whether it’s a container grown tree or it’s a wire basket earthen tree that was grown in field production nurseries. You can pull off that extra soil so that you can start to see that beginning of that, flare out and make sure that that’s completely clear of soil or media before you plant the tree.

Speaker 2  (15:01)
And you want to be very gentle when you do that, because the bark of the root system and the roof layer is more tender than the bark. That’s above the ground, that’s exposed to more weather and stuff like that. So you really have to be gentle when you pull that soil away by hand or with something Blunt, you don’t want to use anything sharp like a shoveler, or anything like that to expose that roof layer, right?

Speaker 1  (15:23)
Okay, and to be really gentle, you can also use like a hose and a stream of water as well. But just, it’s the most important thing I mean, besides watering really proper planting death and depth and making sure that that root flare trunk flare is exposed to the air with nothing abstracting it, I think. I’ve said that at least 6 or 7 times no, so I think you get the point.

Speaker 1  (15:47)
But this is really, really important. So we’re really glad that you’re listening to this and then you need to tell all your friends and neighbors this new information that you have so number 4 is the planting hole So typically we like to have a planting hole that’s just as deep enough to accommodate the root ball of the plant that we’re putting in, because making us really, really deep deep planting hole, like we said to earlier anything deeper than say 45 cm, there’s not enough air in this soil as we get deep deep down and so there’s not going to be as much fiber roots, so typically you just need to go as deep as the planting root ball, unless there’s a drainage issue.

Speaker 1  (16:32)
If there is a drainage issue, then you need to loosen the soil down below and perhaps amend it with some other materials. Like maybe a little bit of bark some sand materials. So sometimes especially north of Toronto, we have some really heavy clay soils and so by mixing in some other loamy, soils or sandy loam soils with that that can really, really help.

Speaker 2  (16:54)
Another problem with that, digging the hole too deep is that the tree could settle so if you loosen up the soil too far below the root ball. As a tree is there for the next year to establishing itself, the root ball can sink down in and then that creates an issue of the tree being planted too deep.

Speaker 1  (17:12)
Yes, that’s a really good point. And it just happened a lot. So we tend to just excavate deep enough to get to the bottom of the root ball, especially with our large caliper, wire basket trees that we’re planting.

Speaker 1  (17:22)
And then, if the soil is fairly easy to dig, you know, it seems to have a decent structure. It’s not like you have to use a pickaxe to excavate this hole, you don’t really have to go too too much wider than the root ball of the tree that you’re putting in, or you could also just excavate kind of spokes of a wheel out from the original planting hole. If there is a bit of a tough soil to give those roots somewhere.

Speaker 1  (17:49)
To grow out horizontally, but we don’t necessarily have to excavate the whole. And you know if the subdivision is older than say, 40 years old, chances are there’s some decent soil around there, and the trees can just naturally grow up.

Speaker 2  (18:04)
You basically just need to dig the hole large enough that you can remove any of the transport material. The burlap down, you know, say 10 or 12 inches below the grade and be able to push the wire baskets.

Speaker 1  (18:18)
Point number 5, amending the soil. So we sort of touched upon that. Now, so what we’ll sometimes do is we’ll use water, and we’ll put water in the holes just to see how quickly it drains.

Speaker 1  (18:29)
We want to see water draining in, hopefully less than 2 for 10 minutes, < 5 minutes is even better. You can put some soil in your hand you can add a little bit of water. You can feel a clay soil because you can actually use your thumb and pointer finger and ribbon out.

Speaker 1  (18:45)
Squeeze the soil and you’ll feel whether it’s a clay soil or a silty soil that feels kind of like flour like baking like your bacon

Speaker 2  (18:55)
You want to fall apart with you and you put a bit of water, it won’t. Yeah, it will stay in your hands. It’ll just turn to

Speaker 1  (19:01)
And the soils that stick together usually have a good amount of clay in them. And then if it’s a real gritty soil that’s that sand portion so soils are sand silk, clay and organic matter that’s a soil and so we like to texture the soil a little bit and then, if it is really heavy clay soil, we’ll bring in some amendment, sometimes we’ll bring in a sandy loam and it’s really important if you are planting trees that some of the original soil from the site, if you are amending this whale that you use a base of at least maybe 50% of the original soil

Speaker 2  (19:34)
I try to do 50% just to the trees growing into the soil as parent there on the site where you might run into a bit of a problem with that is on new construction, where you don’t have any real topsoil, and it’s it, it’s clay and backfill is where you’re going to struggle to get trees and plants to survive and to thrive, so that’s where you’re going to really have to make some changes to the environment before

Speaker 1  (19:58)
That’s what you’re planned. So we need to use amendments, mix them in with the existing soil for that continuous kind of soil texture and type profile for the root system. And then growing out into the rest of the site as well, and we like to use composted materials to add more of a long-term organic source of nutrients and also that it will help to feed and get started with the microbiome.

Speaker 1  (20:23)
Which, of course, is such an important relationship that the root system is having intimate relationships where they’re trading resources back-and-forth, especially the fungal population in the soil.

Speaker 2  (20:35)
And since it’s composted, it’s already starting to break down, so it’s already under the process of being available, and it’s usually a very low salt index, meaning that it’s not going to stress the new plantings for water nutrients.

Speaker 1  (20:51)
And at this time, we try to avoid using things like triple mix, typically triple mix is got things like peat moss in it and peat moss is not soil again. Soil is sand silt, clay and organic matter. And so really, it’s important to know what’s in the triple mix you could use some sandy triple mixes, but try to avoid peat moss because peat moss is going to break down very quickly.

Speaker 1  (21:16)
Turn to dusk, and we’ve seen this before where people have planted trees in triple mix, and within a few years, the soil is like receding, and it’s disappearing and there’s all these exposed rate.

Speaker 2  (21:30)
It’s called, why are all my roots reach? It’s on the surface of the garden.

Speaker 1  (21:34)
Yeah, so you really need to know what’s in that triple mix, but amending a heavy clay soil with a bit of sand or sandy loam is a really great idea. And then number 6, which is kind of a 2 part 1, because it depends on whether the tree is a container grown tree or whether. It’s a wire basket tree and typically not too many homeowners are doing wire basket tree installations.

Speaker 1  (21:58)
It’s pretty heavy, yeah, they are, this is typically what we do in our business and our beautiful trees. But essentially, when you’re removing the container from a container grown tree or shrub or perennial or anything, it’s really good to rough up the root ball. It’s good to rough up that root system and any roots that are growing in circles on the root Pole, pull them out or you.

Speaker 1  (22:23)
Could even cut them?

Speaker 2  (22:24)
Yeah, it makes a huge difference. Even cutting them can be really beneficial to get them to stop that circling.

Speaker 1  (22:30)
Around because those circling roots become girdling roots, which is, as we’ve already said, can choke go to tree and prevent it from being able to live its full life cycle, which should be generations to come. But we could potentially prune off as much as 20% of the root system in container grown trees. And it’s not going to negatively impact them.

Speaker 1  (22:53)
And by removing those circling roots, it actually helps them in the long run, and those trees can grow even faster.

Speaker 2  (23:00)
Yeah, it’s going to encourage more rapid root growth into the new location too, especially if it’s a location that’s got some compost and some stuff. And that’s going to be attractive for those new roots.

Speaker 1  (23:09)
For sure, for sure and in wire basket tree, so these are big caliper trees. So we call it caliper. Because they have usually AA diameter of the stem that’s at least say 40 mm or 4 cm wide, or a little bit larger than that, and so these are field grown trees, they dig a ball of soil, put it in a wire basket with burlap.

Speaker 1  (23:35)
And then ship it to us, and then we plant those for our customers.

Speaker 2  (23:39)
And they’re going to weigh 400 pounds to, you know, over a 1000 pounds for some of them, so that’s something you can just pick up and carry.

Speaker 1  (23:46)
And we just wanted to dispel a few myths because there are myths going on in the industry and some of the things that we see, unfortunately, when we’re out looking at trees, when homeowners call us and say, what’s wrong with our tree. You know, we will often find this sounds really crazy. But this is a fact we will find the original transportation rope still coiled around the base of the tree choking.

Speaker 1  (24:10)
It will find the burlap wrapped around the base of the tree. Choking it, we will find the transportation materials that were supposed to just be on the stem for shipping purposes. They’re still wrapped around the stem of the tree, and this is a real, no no.

Speaker 2  (24:27)
Yeah, I really well it just makes it so the tree can’t establish itself. It’s just the tree, like Jen said, chokes itself out. We’ve removed strapping and nylon rope and everything from around trees that have you know started to girdle into the trunk by you know, inches at some points where the tree is trying to grow trying to expand but I think the thought is that the root ball will fall apart.

Speaker 2  (24:51)
If they don’t leave it on, they intend to come back and take it off and they never do I’m not sure I’m not sure what the reasoning is? But it can really impact the tree within a few years of being planted if it’s not removed.

Speaker 1  (25:04)
So this is a real problem. So as a property owner, you need to know that everything around the stem on the stem around the base of the tree, including the burlap, needs to be removed so that it does not impede the outward expansion and growth of the trunk. So we remove all the ropes we remove the burlap We remove and bend back the wire handles that are on the top of the wire basket.

Speaker 1  (25:34)
But it’s really important to know that the wire basket itself does not have to be removed from the tree. It does not impede root growth whatsoever. And in fact, this research was done in Ontario by Dr.

Speaker 1  (25:46)
Glenn Loomis back in the 1990s, and he dug up root balls of trees that had been planted years earlier was able to show through microscopy that the roots will actually grow over and around the wire basket, and there’s a continuous system of connective tissues that are shunting. Again, those water and dissolve nutrients and carbohydrates back-and-forth between canopy and root system, the wire basket does not have to be removed, but we do take it away from the top of the root ball.

Speaker 2  (26:19)
Yeah, we’ll push it back down into the hole so it’s out of the way, but going back to the burlap Gen., everybody thinks that the burlap will rot away on its own. And yes, maybe in the bottom of the hole where it’s kept wet all the time. And everything it might rot away.

Speaker 2  (26:33)
But when you get closer to the surface, it doesn’t rot away. And it can impede root growth if left in that top sort of foot of the root ball where we cut that down and remove that upper part of the Of the burlap, to allow more quicker access for the tree to get out into the the new soil that it’s going to grow it into around the planting area.

Speaker 1  (26:58)
So again, rule of thumb remove all materials that would potentially impede the outward expansion of the trunk. So that anything that would impede the trunk’s ability to grow thicker. Because that’s what it needs to do so, we like our trees, our beautiful trees to last for generations, and so we do all of these practices which takes a few more minutes at this site, but it’s really, really important because the trees will not be able to establish and will not be able to achieve their full potential unless these materials are removed.

Speaker 1  (27:32)
So point number 7 backfilling this soil.

Speaker 2  (27:37)
So you want to avoid air pockets? So what you want to do is as your back filling you want to poke the soil down in to the bottom of the root ball and into the sides. And then you can use water as well after you pack that on them, to make sure that it’s all down into the base right down to the base, because what you don’t want to happen is for the tree be planted, and there’d be airpockets in the bottom, where the soil that the roots are going to grow out into is now falling down into the bottom of the pit where it was.

Speaker 2  (28:06)
Dug originally

Speaker 1  (28:07)
So we’ll carry a small spade with us to help do this. And then sometimes we’ll actually use the handle of the shovel, if it’s really hard to get in there and just tamper in the soil to make sure that there’s no air pockets. And then we do it gradually, we fill up the soil around the root Ball gradually and tamp in between to make sure.

Speaker 2  (28:24)
Yeah, for visualiation, you could say, like every 6 inches of soil you’re going to fill in around it, you’re going to tamp that down into, make sure it’s down with no airport.

Speaker 1  (28:31)
The pockets and we’re adding our mended soil. We’re adding our compost at that point, and any of these beautiful materials to help build that soil and feed the microbiome that’s around the tree. And we don’t typically stake our trees, it’s very rarely, maybe a big tree installation on top of a hill where there’s you know, continuous wind or windy area, but typically trees don’t need to be staked.

Speaker 2  (28:57)
No, no, we do have the few areas like farms and stuff like that, where it’s wide open. And you know there’s going to be lots of wind coming through. So for the first year or 2, we do put stakes on those but the majority we do not and even trees that we’ve brought in that are 24 feet tall trees that we’ve spaded in, they don’t need to be stick.

Speaker 1  (29:16)
Baked in urban areas where there’s canopy, cover around them, you know, it’s not like they’re completely exposed. And so staking can be a bit limiting because it limits the amount of the trunk’s ability to move back-and-forth and by having that ability to move back-and-forth. That’s what makes the trunk stronger.

Speaker 1  (29:33)
You know, it’s that stress that makes the trunk actually build that reaction would and be able to build out that girth and become stronger. So it’s actually important in a lot of cases, really so?

Speaker 2  (29:48)
I think it’s not negative. We see a lot of like spruce, tregees and different trees like that that have been staked. And what happens is, the tree grows for a couple years and the stakes, the tea bars disappear into the canopy because of the way a spruce tree grows, and then 10 years later, we get the call, what’s wrong with my spruce tree?

Speaker 2  (30:08)
And it’s because the stakes were never removed and the material that they use to attach to the tree, whether that’s hose with a wire or nylon straps, whatever are still wrapped around the tree. Girdling the tree.

Speaker 1  (30:19)
And they’ve grown right into the tree, and they’re completely girdled and again, the tree cannot it survived that in the long-term. So it’s because most people don’t really take the stakes off and a lot of times they’re not needed in the first place, hardly ever. State trees, unless there’s a lot of wind or a big canopy.

Speaker 1  (30:39)
And point number 8 is water irrigation watering your tree, so watering the soil in is a really good idea too. When you’re newly planting a tree to help that soil settle in, remove air pockets.

Speaker 2  (30:52)
Yeah, and then uh, water in the tree really have to think about where are the roots? So you have this new tree that just was put into the location? The only roots it’s going to have are in the root ball, so the root ball needs to be watered, but where the roots are going to grow out to is trying to grow out.

Speaker 2  (31:08)
It’s beyond its grip line of where the canopy is, so it’s trying to grow it into that new soil. So it needs to have water. But really, for the first year, you have to really make sure you get some water into the root ball as well

Speaker 1  (31:20)
Well, that original root ball that you planted, especially if it’s a container grown tree, because again that’s not soil in that container, that is peat, moss and bark and pearlite. And some other things that are not soiled. They don’t hold water so a container grown tree, especially in the first couple of months.

Speaker 1  (31:38)
You should be watering that root ball. You know, I would say a couple of times a week, like every 3 or 4 days, but if it’s an earthen root ball like a wire basket tree or you know where it came in in field soil a lot of times that can be watered just once a week. And what we do is we build an earthen circle around the tree, we call it the moat, and we’ll mulch that as well, when we’re done planting and what you can do is you can take your hose or your watering can and you can just fill up this moat and you’ll see the water and then it will drain.

Speaker 1  (32:13)
It’ll drain right into that original root ball that you planted and then come in half an hour later a little while later, fill it up again. And then you’ve got 2, the perfect water infiltrations, right into the root ball to keep it moist just once a week, usually

Speaker 2  (32:29)
Yeah, without that boat, you have a lot of runoff. So the watering is going to be more difficult to slower and harder to judge how much you’re actually getting into the Rupert bull.

Speaker 1  (32:38)
And you’ve probably seen this these circles around trees that are newly planted. So now you know that’s what that’s for if the temperatures are say, like above, you know, say 28°C or the high 20s and it’s dry and it’s windy then doing that kind of a watering that double watering like that is twice a week, is probably a really good idea and the heat of the summer.

Speaker 2  (33:01)
If this can be our July like July can be, you know, a rainfall of one inch for the whole month. So we really have to do a lot of supplemental watering during those really dry spells, especially when it’s hot and humid and windy like you were saying.

Speaker 1  (33:15)
And we provide our customers with information about watering and aftercare, so that they have this for reference, and then they know that they can do these things we try to make it as easy as possible. So number 9 mulch, multiple volcanoes. Sometimes you’ve seen those big things big piles of mulch, now you know not to do that up against your tree.

Speaker 1  (33:37)
Now you know nothing should be up against the base of the tree. It should just have that beautiful root flare trunk flare flaring out open to the air, you can put your hands over top of it. It is free and open, but from that point outward.

Speaker 1  (33:51)
Yes, you can definitely use mulch

Speaker 2  (33:53)
Yeah, and you don’t want to exceed 4 inches. We prefer to stay in the 2 to 3 inch of mulch, so that they have air transfer, and you’re not going to have those roots trying to grow up into them all because they’re being suffocated.

Speaker 1  (34:04)
We don’t want any more adventurous roots growing up into the mold. So yeah, that’s about 5 to 7 and a 1/2 centimeters deep, and we like to use natural malt, we don’t, you’d like to use the painted mulches, because we don’t think that they’re probably very good for the soil microbiome, when they put I break down and that kind of thing, so we tend to use natural untreated. Unpainted mulches like natural Cedar lutures

Speaker 2  (34:28)
Yeah, yeah, I like the Cedar mulch it’s a little bit slower to break down so it can be top dressed regularly once a year. Once every 2 years to keep up the appearance, it’s easier to pull any weeds or anything out through the mulch, because the ground is kept moist.

Speaker 1  (34:46)
If it breaks down in it, it, it provides a food source for microbes again, which are Partners to our trees. So we know that a lot of people really love the black painted mulches and I have to, you know, I understand that black look is really beautiful, but the other thing you gotta think about is that. Dark dark color when the Sun is shining that it’s heating up the black mulch, even more than a lighter colored mulch, so actually the soil below it is hotter than if you used a lighter colored natural mulch and a hotter root zone plus we already have temperatures that you know with climate change we already have higher temperatures than used to have hotter root zone temperatures are detrimental to root growth.

Speaker 1  (35:29)
The roots in that top layer of soil will die under those conditions. So a black mulch is not a good idea for that reason as well

Speaker 2  (35:39)
I’ve seen where some sites they’ve used rubber so-called mulch as a root as a weed barrier, and that is very susceptible to heating up with the Sun is very hot and puts off gasses and different environmentally unfriendly, things that would be not wanted in your garden, so even though it’s a via.

Speaker 1  (36:08)
If it doesn’t last does it, we’d still manage to grow through it. So it’s really not recommended by us to use those types of materials.

Speaker 2  (36:16)
Well, and we’ve removed it in many places and then come back with a natural mulch, to improve the conditions for the plants.

Speaker 1  (36:24)
Thin landscape fabric is the same thing with that. You know, in a short-term, it kind of makes sense as a weed barrier. But that landscape fabric also reduces the ability of this soil to exchange gasses with the air, and what happens is the microbes that everybody’s in there doing their respiration, they’re all trying to breathe.

Speaker 1  (36:43)
There’s a lot of life in this soil. And so by putting that landscape fabric on top, they’re impeding the ability for gas exchange. So what happens is carbon dioxide, which is the you know what happens that it’s the result of respiration, just like us breathing.

Speaker 1  (37:00)
It builds up in the soil and too much carbon dioxide can be toxic, so all those beneficial microbes start to die. And it is not great for the root zone roots will start to die. So landscape fabric is really a no, for healthy, long-term microbiome and healthy root systems for plants

Speaker 2  (37:20)
And we’ve also found 2 is where the up the landscape fabric meets the soil. It puts a sheen in on the soil, which creates a barrier for moisture and gasses to go back-and-forth. So generally shortly after landscape fabrics installed the trees within a couple of years start to show signs of decline, yeah.

Speaker 1  (37:44)
And you know, it’s really tough to diagnose unless you know these things so now you know you’re the listener now you know better. So I hope you’re right now. You’re feeling really glad that you’ve been listening to this episode of planting trees like a pro, because again, there’s a lot of information here that we’ve seen like we have a combined experience between the 2 of us.

Speaker 1  (38:04)
And I think it’s over 65 years. So we’ve seen a lot, so we’re trying to put a lot into these podcast episodes to really educate those listeners that are really interested in growing healthy trees and increasing canopy cover, especially in urban areas.

Speaker 2  (38:20)
Yeah, and I think the one last thing about that fabric is sometimes there’ll be the fabric will be laid down and the planting will come in afterwards where they’re planting through the fabric and then, as the plants grow they become griddled, because the fabric is very strong, it’s made not.

Speaker 1  (38:33)
Yeah, it doesn’t break down so if it’s up against a stem of a witty plant, it will girdle that stem and the stem can’t grow outward through it. And so it has to go around it, and it eventually can choke out the plant. We’ve certainly seen that as well, so number 10 is pruning, so we pretty much we try to avoid pruning newly planted trees.

Speaker 1  (38:53)
There’s definitely some exceptions. If there’s a broken branch absolutely you want to prune it out if there’s like a major structural issue that you know, you’re not going to get back on-site in the next couple of years to be able to fix it. Absolutely prune, that structural issue out if it’s a fruit tree and especially if it’s the first year spring, yeah, they need to be pruned in the first year for structure, because that’s really, really important, but any other time we typically don’t prune.

Speaker 1  (39:23)
The canopy, and the reason is that the canopy is actually producing well, not only carbohydrates, which are so important. It’s It makes the sugars photosynthesis, but it actually produces a hormone that signals the tree to grow roots. And so if we’re reducing the canopy by pruning, potentially, we’re reducing that signaling hormone.

Speaker 1  (39:48)
So there is that kind of theory now, who knows, right like nobody knows a 100%, but we tend to err, on the side of caution, and we don’t really prune the canopy for the first couple of years, except for the exceptions that we’ve already named.

Speaker 2  (40:04)
Yeah, yeah, so basically like Jen said, leaving as much of the canopy as possible. For those triggering reasons for roots is super important to have. The tree established quickly into the new site, if the tree is slow to establish, it’s going to stress it, because it’s not going to be able to access those nutrients and water requirements that it needs, and it’s only going to be able to access what’s in the root ball that it came in.

Speaker 1  (40:28)
So in case of a hedge, for instance, if we’re putting in like a Cedar hedge, we typically don’t prune the Cedar hedge until about year through, you really want to see it established.

Speaker 2  (40:39)
Because it takes a good couple of years for the root system to come back to what it was before it was dug out unless it’s a container tree, and then it’s going to come with most of its roots.

Speaker 1  (40:49)
Yeah, and that first year, that tree is just growing a root system back. It’s really what it’s doing so number 11 fertilizer question mark so we typically do not fertilize in the first year, again, it’s all about root growth roots are growing out horizontally into the soil they’re establishing you. Know that fibrous root system that’s going to be taking up water and dissolved nutrients.

Speaker 1  (41:11)
But typically we just water in the first year. There’s not a great ability for the tree to pick up to solve, you know, like synthetic fertilizer, I think it would be very wasteful

Speaker 2  (41:24)
And that’s what we use the compost, the composted manure and things like that, so it’s a very low salt index. So the tree has access to some nutrients without it being too much of a nutrient that’s going to actually draw moisture out of the tree, rather than encouraging moisture to go. Into the tree.

Speaker 1  (41:42)
So typically we don’t to do fertilizer in the first year, it’s really about making sure that there’s ample water and a slow irrigation. Again, that happens once a week or twice a week. But a slow long irrigation, that’s you know, you’re hopefully putting on about 2 and a 1/2 centimeters of soil or of water, and that’s really, it’s really about water in that first year.

Speaker 2  (42:06)
And you have to really be careful too of irrigation systems where the grass is being irrigated, and it might be irrigated every 2 days. But it’s only on for 20 minutes. So it’s only really designed to soak down into the ground for the roots of the grass to be efficient for watering, so it’s only going down a couple inches into the swell.

Speaker 1  (42:25)
Or maybe like 10 cm or so, and that’s not where the roots are of the trees is it?

Speaker 2  (42:31)
No, so the trees will need supplemental water beyond what the irrigation system is doing. And then the other thing is, depending on the tree, and the location is the irrigation system might need to be adjusted for a water wetting. The foliage of especially you know, evergreens those trees that are more susceptible to some of those fungal diseases

Speaker 1  (42:53)
We’re going to talk about this in another podcast too. So we won’t get to, we just want to put a little teaser out there that you’ll listen to our podcast on leaf wetness periods and disease, because this is really important as well. And the last part is, you know, time of year for planting trees, typically we like to plant in the spring, we don’t really plant that much in the fall, but use you absolutely can.

Speaker 1  (43:18)
The shoulder seasons are fantastic, but planting in this spring, the tree is going to have a lot longer to put on a root system before the winter dormancy comes.

Speaker 2  (43:29)
Yeah, and I think that you know, you can probably get away with planting something like a deciduous tree in the fall, more likely than you’d be able to plant something like an evergreen and coniferous tree, where they’re going to have a lot less root system established for the winter and they have to maintain all of their canopy through that dormant season, and they’re going to have moisture loss due to Sun wind and everything and not be able to restore that. So they’re going to desiccate through the winter, where if that tree was planted in April or may it would.

Speaker 2  (44:01)
Have enough resources that that desiccation would be a lot less likely to happen.

Speaker 1  (44:06)
Yeah, so because evergreens hold their foliage all through the year, it’s really stressful that for them, transplanting is even more stressful. So we typically try to just plant evergreens in the spring, not saying that you can’t plant them in the fall or towards the end of the summer. Because a lot of people do and are successful, but it takes a lot of you know, tender loving care.

Speaker 1  (44:27)
It needs to be done properly. Soy moisture is pivotal, they’re using probably antidesicant sprays as well and burlap barriers and things like that to prevent that winter desiccation so we err on the side of caution, and we typically just plant evergreens in the spring. But deciduous trees can be planted either in the spring or the fall.

Speaker 1  (44:48)
But we always to, you know, we prefer to plant this spring so that that tree has, you know, several months to grow a root system and start the period of establishment before that first winter come.

Speaker 2  (45:01)
And a lot of the trees are dug in the spring too. So you’re getting a fresher stalk of tree that hasn’t been sitting in the nursery being maintained, which is okay, but the tree is more likely a hood of a chance to establish itself if it’s been freshly dug and now put into a no location to start putting us in

Speaker 1  (45:20)
And we’re talking about big trees, so we’re talking about trees that are 10 feet tall, 9 feet tall, something like that, maybe even 78 feet tall, that are evergreens or taller or deciduous trees that are say 10 feet tall or taller, so bigger trees, smaller trees they can establish. More quickly, they don’t have as much of A Of a deficit in terms of transplant chalk and so smaller trees can withstand the stress of transplanting and you can plant them spring or fall much, much more easily than a more.

Speaker 1  (45:55)
You know medium to large size tree.

Speaker 2  (45:57)
Yeah, like if I was bringing in a very large tree, I wouldn’t even consider bringing it into the fall myself where I would focus on bringing that in as early in the spring, as I could to let it have a chance to establish itself before we get into our hot summer.

Speaker 1  (46:11)
And again, it’s not that it can’t be done because it is done all the time, it’s just a little bit more stressful if they’re going in towards the end of the season instead of at the beginning of it. So I hope that this has really shed some light and now you are really going to feel that you can plant a tree like a pro, which is really important to us. And not only that, but if you are hiring a service to come and plant trees or shrubs or any kind of plants for you that now, you know all of these things and so you’ll be able to ask questions, and you’ll be able to watch and make sure that they’re doing all of these things to be as successful as possible with your beautiful trees.

Speaker 2  (46:53)
I’ll go in and check your own trees. Afterwards, like Jen had mentioned early subsequent mulchings and edgings of gardens and stuff like that can really throw the soil up against the trunk. At least now you can go in and have a look and say, Hey, you know you’ve got to stop Throwing that soil up there and/or the molt is piled up against the trunk and be able to correct it yourself or have it corrected.

Speaker 1  (47:14)
I’m pretty sure everybody listening to this podcast is going to be going out into the garden. After this, or out onto the street to look at the trees that are up in front of their home and make sure that there’s nothing piled up against the trunk slur root flair, we hope. You’ve enjoyed this podcast.

Speaker 1  (47:30)
You can find us at beautiful trees.com. And our phone number is 416.

Speaker 2  (47:35)
6 7 3 8 4 1 3 7.

Speaker 1  (47:39)
You can find us online easily and you can also email [email protected], I’m Jen Llewellyn it’s been wonderful to be here with my incredible partner.

Speaker 2  (47:52)
And I’m Joel Anderson, it’s been a pleasure talking about this subject with you.

Speaker 1  (47:56)
Thank you so much. Hope you have a great day.