Planting Trees is Easy... Right?

Well that’s what I thought when I took a position years ago (with a different company) where we planted 650 balled and burlapped trees the first year I was there.

I had been in the tree industry for about 10 years at the time but didn’t have a lot of planting experience. We had a backhoe, 4 crew members and all the elementary kids in the city to help us. What could go wrong? Well apparently, a number of things. One of the first things we learned was it doesn’t matter how many times you mention to an elementary student that you should not stand on the root ball or hang on the tree trunk while planting the tree. We also learned that it is very hard to keep the elementary students attention for more than 1 or 2 tree plantings. As it turned out, dealing with the students was the easy part. We quickly learned that digging the planting hole with an inexperienced tree planting backhoe operator was also a mistake. As we discovered the following year, many of our trees were planted way to deep. We also had to deal with large chunks of soil which hinders the ability to avoid air pockets around the root balls and clean up was much harder. We later discovered that using a stump grinder to dig our planting holes was much easier and cleaner.

After that first planting season we noticed that we were losing a number of trees. So instead of just yanking them out of the ground we started inspecting each dead tree to see if we could determine what went wrong. A number of them were simply planted to deep. Remember the backhoe, many of the holes were dug to deep. We didn’t realize how important it is that the root flare be visible at grade or even slightly higher than grade.

After even more inspections we found that we planted the top of the root ball at grade, but the root flares were 6 inches deep in the root ball itself. Some of the trees even tried to develop a second root flare called adventitious roots. After that first year we learned that the majority of our losses were from planting too deep.

As the years went on, we continued to learn from our mistakes. One example that really taught us about planting depth were 6 to 7 English Oaks that we planted at one location where they survived but didn’t really grow much. Plans for the site changed a few months later and we decided to move them to a new location. As we were digging them up, we discovered how deeply they were planted. We were able to move them and planted them at the correct depth. They grew over a foot in the first year after being planted properly. It was like they said, “Thank you”.

Another observation that I made recently was at a small clearing job we did in Canal Winchester. The site was a nursery at one time. Apparently when the property changed hands, they left about 12 to 15 balled and burlapped trees just sitting on the ground near some Norway Spruces. Every one of those trees survived and took root in the ground below them and have been growing for several years. So, I guess if you’re not sure, planting trees higher is better than being planted too deep.

I will be following up this article with a tree planting video at a later date. There are many other tips that we learned the hard way that I will be happy to share later.

Mike McKee | Regional Manager, Russell Tree Experts

Mike graduated from Hocking College in 1983 with a degree in Natural Resources specializing in urban tree care. He has been a certified arborist since 1991. Mike started his career in the private industry in 1985 before becoming a municipal arborist in1989. He retired after serving thirty years before joining us at Russell Tree Experts in Sept. of 2018. His love of trees has never waned since trying to climb up the ridges of the massive Cottonwood tree in front of his childhood home.

Editor’s Note: Although Russell Tree Experts doesn’t sell or plant trees (other than for our TREE FOR A TREE® program), we highly value the importance of proper tree planting. See our recommended vendors list for your tree purchasing and planting needs.