With due respect to those who have a so-called “green thumb,” I feel that most of their success comes from knowledge and experience in proper planting and care.
Here, therefore, are a few tips that will help bring success with your spring planting of trees and shrubs.
Bare Root Planting
If you can plant immediately, do the following steps:
- Unpack your plants.
- Dip roots in water.
- Cover roots only with damp packing material to prevent their drying out.
The earlier you can plant, the better.
If you can’t plant immediately, “heel-in” your plants.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Remove all packing material.
- Spread out roots and fill in firmly with pulverized earth.
- Keep the earth moist. This temporary planting should be in a place protected from sun and wind while plants are still dormant.
For final planting, do these steps:
- Dig generous holes with perpendicular sides, not saucer-shaped.
- Use good topsoil around the roots.
- Loosen the soil at the bottom of the hole to about 8” inches deep.
- Set trees slightly deeper than they stood in the nursery, shrubs about as deep as before or slightly deeper.
- Spread roots and work soil over and around them.
- Keep putting in good soil (mix soil and peat moss if needed) until the hole is nearly full, pressing the soil firmly around roots.
- Fill the hole with water.
- Finally, fill up with loose soil, but do not tamp, leaving a saucer-like depression to catch and retain water.
- A 2” inches mulch of peat or straw manure on top is beneficial.
- With evergreens, water thoroughly in late fall before the ground freezes.
Before planting deciduous, shade, or fruit trees, do these following steps:
- Prune off ⅓ to ½ of the branches.
- If a high crown is desired, leave the central branch uncut.
- Remove small, crowding branches, leaving a strong leader and branches at wide, not close, angles.
- Cut off all broken roots just back of the break.
If special directions came with the tree, follow them.
Proper Way To Stake A Tree
Trees over 8’ feet tall should be staked.
If you use wire, run it through loops of rubber hose to avoid cutting the bark.
To plant shrubs, do these steps:
- Cut off damaged or frayed roots.
- Thin out tops of a many-branched shrub, removing the old wood.
- Cut tops back ⅓ to ½.
- Follow the same planting procedure as for bare-root stock.
Proper Hedge Planting
Here are some tips for a hedge to be 2’ feet high:
- Space the small shrubs 10” to 12” inches apart, measuring from centers.
- For medium-sized hedges, plant 12” to 18” inches apart.
- For high hedges, plant 2’ to 4’ feet apart. A double staggered row of plants makes the most effective hedge.
- Prune tops back to 6” to 12” inches above the ground.
- Each spring, you can trim the hedge back to the desired height and width.
- Trim so that bottom is slightly wider than the top to permit sunlight to reach the entire hedge.
Burlap Stock Planting
To plant Burlap, follow these steps:
- Dig a hole a foot wider and deeper than the ball of earth.
- Provide good, loamy topsoil to fill around the ball.
- Set tree in the hole a trifle lower than it stood in the nursery.
- Half fill with good humusy topsoil.
- Tread soil firm or settle by filling the hole with water.
- Burlap may or may not be rolled back.
- Fill the hole with soil. Pack with loose earth or a humus mulch.
Container-Grown Plants
This has a considerable advantage because it can be kept indefinitely in the can if it is properly watered and sheltered.
Such plants are not limited to seasonal planting—plant them in spring, summer or fall.
Just place the plant in a hole twice the size of the root mass and fill around it with a mixture of soaked peat moss and topsoil.
Given proper moisture after planting, the compact mass of fine roots quickly takes hold.