[jwholden]

I have seen too many trees destined for an early grave this year. Too often the guy before me saves a whole minute by not removing the burlap and twine around the trunk of the tree when planting. I know it is written that you can leave untreated burlap and twine around the trunk , but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Attached is the trunk of a Dwarf Alberta Spruce that is showing signs of decline. I thought the tree had spider mites, but a little investigation led to this find. The plastic twine was never removed when this tree was planted 8-10 years ago.

[jwholden]

Here's a shot of how deeply the twine dug into the trunk. It was only an matter of time before this tree bit the bullet.

[jwholden]

This is a shot of some Blue Spruce trees that had untreated burlap left on when planted. Unfortunately, there was plastic twine hidden underneath.

[VoodooChile]

Right on John!

We see plenty of abused declining trees in southern Wisconsin's landscapes, and burlap, twine and steel cages are frequently the culprit.

Here's my variation on a theme. The Abies koreana 'Silberlocke' shown below came from one of the Midwest's premier conifer growers. At planting we discovered three layers of burlap, two treated. Sure enough, beneath the original layer of burlap we found twine tied so tightly around the trunk that it had incised a deep groove, evidenced by the kink. This was a $500 tree, my cost, mind you, not counting the hour it took to extricate this beauty from the burlap and twine while retaining some rootball.

Anyway, three years later she is doing fine, but if you at all value the longevity of your work, you will peel back the burlap to discover what lies beneath.

Sadly, the landscapers who cut corners to save time and money in the short term cost all of us in the green industry creditability, sales and profit in the long-term.

[Bill Schwab]

Even though they can be a pain in the rear, root boxes are esier than balls and burlap. That was an adjustment I had to make, but you have to remove them. You flip the tree on it's side to remove the bottom, then drop it into the hole. If it needs to be turned, simply nail a 10' 2x4 on the box, and push. It the tree has to be raised, you take 2x4's and nail on each box side, lift the tree right out. Plus we have all kinds of firewood for the cold season!

[Stonehenge]

I don't recall any nurseries around me even offering boxed plant material - though I do see it all the time on TV shows done on the west coast.

[spiderlily]

We've never seen nursery stock available in boxes, either. I really like the Whitcomb system root control bags.

[dan deutekom]

The only place I have seen boxed nursery stock is from Calafornia when we imported large specimen trees for interiorscape use.

[dan deutekom]

Great pictures JW by the way.

They belong in a text book about planting techniques

[justgardens]

We took out shrubs yesterday to move them away from the house. The homeowner said they were planted by another landscape company last year. Twine and burlap completely intact. This company has been in business for 30 plus years and knows better. She said he came and gave instructions to the crew and left...guess they took some shortcuts.

[Bill Schwab]

There is yet another angle to view this type of occurance. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the company to implement proper horticultural practices. And, asked of any of them, I'm sure the people in charge would want to burlap removed. It is an issue of ongoing training and management. If the people who planted are aloowed to get away with it, then it becomes a propblem. The companies should continue training thier people to assure this does not happen.

[jwholden]

Along a similar line of thought.

Starting digging around the base of this birch the other day and discovered this girdling root. It was the first I have found to be so obvious.

This tree was planted in very nasty builders soil and had about five inches of mulch on top of it. I suspect the girdling root grew after the tree was planted.

[GLAN]

Natural burlap can stay.........

Untie it and push it down into the hole prior to back filling.


Wire cages can also stay......snip the top down the side and push down into the hole.



There is absolutely nothing wrong with the above practice.......




What is described and pictures shown above.........is in fact "stupidity"..............Anything nylon needs to be removed. Treated burlap is recomended to remove........though I have seen done ourselves handled that as any other burlap and push down into the hole........I have in fact seen treated burlap rot in not that much longer a time frame than other burlaps......Now that maybe my location.

Wire baskets.........we have seen them break down enough within 3 - 5 years

[agla]

I think it all goes back to what I believe is the toughest part of this business, managing help. Bill alluded to it up above.

There are two sides to the completely remove or not completely remove story for burlap and cages. While it is ideal not to have them present, the removal process can do more harm than to remove just the top. The purpose of the cage and burlap is to keep the ball from breaking up and keep it stable. If the removal process weakens the ball to the detriment of the tree, it is better to remove the top of burlap and cage and cut the cage in several places instead.

I see visions of the same work crew that could not bother cutting those nylon strings swinging a tree all over the place hacking a cage off of the crumbling root ball and dropping it in the hole. The hole that they measured 18" deep when the ball was in tact. Now the tree is 8" too deep while they push the dirt that fell off of the ball into the hole to bury it.

I'd take the well placed tree in the cage buried 1/3 of the way to hold it stable. Then cut what you can of the cage and remove what you can of the burlap.

One thing that you have to be careful about when you leave burlap on is that if some of it is exposed to the surface air, it will wick water away from that plant ball. It really should be cut back to avoid this problem.

[Stonehenge]

As I'm typing this I have a poster in my lap that I just got from the Forestry division of the Wisconsin DNR. They recommend clipping and folding back the basket and trimming the burlap after removing all the twine.

One of my guys took a class last winter and in spring told me "We're planting trees wrong - we should be removing the wire basket." I had to explain to him the same thing Agla mentioned above. I had tried to remove the baskets on one project a few years ago, and instead I just mangled the rootballs. Never tried it since.