This is my first post on this forum. I feel this is the best tree care forum on the web so I finally decided to join so I could share information as well. I just went to The North Dakota Urban & Community Forestry Association's Tree Care Workshop on Wednesday and Thursday. I was blown away by two speakers, Ron Zillmer and Dan Traas. On Wednesday they did an all day lecture titled, "Twenty Minutes in the Life or Death of a Tree." The lecture uncovered the reasons why trees are being planted too deep even when being planted by professionals. I have always felt that I was on the cutting edge and never planted a tree too deep. After listening to their lecture I was thankful that most of my tree planting involved bare root stock. When planting B&B stock I had been doing so according to the University of Minnesota's recommendations of probing into the root ball with a piece of wire to detect where the first order roots were. First order roots were those at least the diameter of a pencil. Then the recommendation was to carefully remove the soil down to the first order roots and plant at that depth. After this lecture I know that I could still have been planting those trees too deep. The lecture revealed, after dismantling the root balls of a couple thousand dollars worth of B&B and field grown container stock, that all those trees had started to develop secondary root systems(adventitious roots). Some of the secondary root systems were larger than the actual root system. Many of the secondary roots were much larger than pencil width. They had examples of root systems where the tree had failed that showed secondary roots that were a couple of inches in diameter. Most of the trees, whose root balls were dismantled, had a system of roots that would only require the planting hole to be dug to a depth of eight inches. Their recommendations were to completely dismantle the root ball and examine what you have to work with for a root system, removing secondary roots when possible without killing the tree. Some of the trees primary root systems were already non-functional and the tree was being kept alive by the secondary root system. Those trees at that stage are already doomed to a much shorter life expectancy. The myth of not messing with the root ball was dispelled. They explained that the fine roots of the plant only live for fourteen days before dying or becoming a woody lateral. They used this to justify any loss of fine roots. They had been successfully planting trees using this method and those trees were establishing much faster than old method trees. They have been working on getting nurseries to correct this problem but until then we must adjust our planting methods. They lectured all day on Wednesday and kept a large audience captivated the whole time. I can't possibly cover the entire lecture under this forum but I believe I covered some of their main points. Both speakers have excellent credentials as well. If anyone else has seen them speak chime in. If you get a chance to see them speak I would highly recommend them. I am going to see the movie "Miracle" right now but I am interested to see what kind of discussion develops from this.
-Chris, forester by schooling and arborist by trade
-Chris, forester by schooling and arborist by trade
