Over the past several years, I've planted trees in my rural Battleground yard, from a variety of sources. I've planted bare-root trees, transplanted trees from another location, and planted trees that I've grown in containers. My guess is I have planted or transplanted more than 50 trees and shrubs over the past few years.
Even though I'm winding down, due to enough is enough, I do have another to add. I bought a semidwarf Gravenstein, in container, on sale from Tsugawa nursery. It's about 6 or 7 feet tall, with nice branching. Probably a 5 gallon container.
Last winter, I bought a containerized Honeycrisp from the same place, it looked great, then about March the tree fell over. There were no more roots. Examining them, it looked like voles had eaten all of the small roots. I also bought a hybrid pear which had moles dig around the planted tree, but that one survived. Maybe voles don't like quince roots.
Thinking back, I've also lost 2 container-grown cherry trees to voles, and moles have re-tunnelled multiple times through the center root circle of several other trees, especially pawpaws and a couple of figs. That got me thinking - has the same thing happened for trees that I transplanted from another location with average or poor soil? Has it happened to bare-root trees that I've planted? I think the answer is "no" in both cases. It seems most likely to happen with container-grown or container-sold trees and shrubs, in my yard. Of the bare-root apple trees that I've planted, none have died or had mole hills adjacent to the tree, other than that unfortunate doomed Honeycrisp tree.
What I wonder is, if the compost in the containers contains too rich material, maybe fostering growth or attraction of earthworms and bugs that attract moles, whose tunnels are then used by voles that eatthe roots. When I don't use container-grown trees, there is no such attractant.
I should add, I did lose an older plum tree, probably about 10 years old, that was long past the age for any potential container soil to be present.
Now I'm thinking, before planting my new Gravenstein, I should hose off all of the soil, make it bare root, and plant just using the native soil in that spot. I was thinking about using the method of Linda Walker Scott, WSU Horticulturist in Seattle, who strongly promotes hosing off all soil from new trees. Bare-root method. and Rationale. When it comes to container trees and plants, I've been pretty aggressive about cutting off all encircling roots, and cutting incisions into the root ball so there are no girdling roots, but I have not bare rooted. This tree still has leaves. I don't know what will happen if I hose off the soil while there are still leaves.
You guys are more expert than I am. What do you think? Do I have something there as far as thinking the planting compost might attract vermin, and should be removed?
I bought several potted plants this year and found they did not acclimate well after planting. I finally dug some of them up, cleaned the soilless potting mix out of the roots and replanted them directly in soil. it took a long time for them to recover but I think they are better off.
When plants are potbound I try to tease the roots as straight as possible while holding the plant upside down. Then I quickly flip the plant over onto a mound of dirt in the planting hole to allow the roots to spread out. Any roots longer than the planting hole is wide get a trench or tunnel to allow them to lay put full length rather than cutting them or curling them in the hole
Here's an update on what I did with the tree in question. I reviewed the websites related to advice from Washington horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott. In the original post I mis-wrote her name as Linda Walker Scott. I decided to follow her advice regarding bare-rooting my containerized Gravenstein Apple tree. A few photos are below. The process was not difficult. I think it took about 15 minutes although I didn't time, it.
Remove tree from container.
For a late season container nursery tree, I expected worse interwoven and winding roots. This wasn't too bad. I hosed with a fairly vigorous setting on my garden sprayer, hopefully not removing bark from the roots. I occasionally shook the roots using my hands, not garden tools.
After about 5 minutes of spraying.
I kept turning and hosing, and after roughly 15 minutes total hosing this is as far into the root ball as I thought I could get.
I dug the hole before bare-rooting the tree. To plant the tree, I adjusted the size of the hole a little, placed the tree, filled with about 1/3 of the soil, watered in to wash soil into the crevices between roots, repeated at 2/3 full and completely full.
Probably due to the cool drizzly weather and rainy the past 3 days, this tree did not lose even one leaf. I think that's a good sign. We'll see if the primary goal, of reduced mole and vole damage, works out. I've also learned the hard way, not to delay with installing deer cage and a hardware cloth rodent sleeve, so those are there as well.
Jafar, it would be reasonable and maybe most advisable to do as you suggest. I did want it give it a little time to grow new roots from leaf-generated photosynthesis, prior to leaf fall. I don't think it would make a big difference. I was kind of tired of watering it in the container, and in-ground now in the rainy season, I think it's OK.
for what it's worth, I planted European Lindens in summer and fall, 2012 that were more pot bound, and in full leaf. I bought those on close out for a fraction of full price, something like $8 for a $39 tree. The price I paid was they were very root bound and the tops needed some corrective pruning. I cut off all circling roots, shook off some planting compost but did not bare-root. I think there was more root loss than if I hosed the roots. If I was to do it now, I would have bare rooted them. I did water them a lot until rainy season. That was the main drawback. Those trees also did not wilt, and have become handsome specimens now.
It's really interesting to me that there was really no loss of leaf. I wish I tried this before. Always learning new things.
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jafar
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