You may remember from my previous thread my dying maple, well The maple was removed yesterday. From the picture below I hope you will be able to see that only half of the tree had roots. Jimmyq came and looked at it last week and examined a branch, and did not feel it was the dreaded Verticillium , nor was water likely the problem. He felt that it was possible that the tree was planted to deeply, in effect smothering the root ball. (Did I get that right Jimmyq, if I got that wrong, please correct me so others know what is right) That was confirmed yesterday, the poor maple was being smothered in soil. No wonder only half if it had roots.
Hi Buzzbee, looks like we were right after all. planted WAY too deep. no trunk flare visible, mucho soil over the top of the rootball, nylon bailer twine, clay rootball and non clay planting area (soil interface issues) all kinds of fun. I hope the new one gets a better start after we grubbed around to find its trunk flare and such. it was a nursery tree ALSO planted 4 inches too deep in the pot, nylon twine, etcetc. so many people know better and it still gets done wrong. Irritating to say the least.
thanks to you telling me what to watch for, the people that did the work yesterday did it right. I stood over them and watched carefully for the things you mentioned but they seem to know what they were doing. It is a great warning for anyone purchasing a "nursery" tree, and especially if the "Nursery" does the planting which is what happened to our poor maple. Thanks again
no worries ;) helping to edumacate the public and some nursery staff is a reward in itself. The problem we saw is unfortunately very common.
