How to Plant a Burlapped Tree
Spring isn’t too far away and it’s an excellent time of year for planting ball and burlapped trees. These are trees that have been dug out of the ground and their roots have been wrapped in burlap. Natural burlap will rot away after planting, causing no disturbance to the roots.
Spring-planting allows the roots enough time to become established before summer’s excessive heat. Furthermore, spring rains will keep the ground moist, reducing the immediate need for supplemental watering.
Trees wrapped in burlap have some advantages over container-grown trees. NYP Offers wire nursery baskets, that are ideal for easily transporting and handling delicate or sandy root balls. Trees wrapped in burlap are pruned at the time of transplanting. (Read our previous blog Wire Nursery Baskets)The roots have not become pot-bound. With container-grown trees, roots become restricted and circle inside the containers. It might be necessary to cut the roots for easy removal. The roots of burlap-wrapped trees do not require trimming, diminishing the risk of damage to the root system. Additional pruning is unnecessary once planted.
Planting a tree with burlapped roots is fairly straightforward:
- Prepare the planting site by digging a hole slightly shallower than the height of the root ball, and three times its width.
- Roughen the inside of the hole all around.
- Cut away wrappings, labels and strings from the tree.
- Prune away any broken/dead branches.
- Carefully lower tree into hole, insuring that the area where the trunk flares sits just above ground.
- Cut away and discard the top two-thirds of burlap from the root ball.
- Refill the hole with the original soil, creating a raised ring around the tree for watering.
- Mulch to within three inches of the tree trunk.
- Water well to get rid of air pockets.
Keep trees well-watered during the first year after planting, especially during hot, dry conditions. The amount of water needed depends on the size of the tree and the climate, but a minimum of five gallons of water twice weekly is advisable.
It is important not to over-water, however. If a finger inserted into the soil detects moisture, then watering is not necessary at that time.
Trees provide beauty, shade and structure to the landscape, and they prevent soil erosion. The beauty of planting trees wrapped in burlap is that landscapers can plant mature trees that will have immediate impact in gardens, without homeowners having to wait for smaller trees to reach maturity.
NYP has proudly served gardeners, landscapers and nurserymen with high quality burlap for their agricultural and nursery supplies since the 1950′s.
Tags: burlap, burlap nursery supplies, nursery supplies, outdoor uses for burlap
This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2012 at 8:38 am and is filed under Burlap, NYP-Corp News.