Planting failure - Opinions please.

[Gary Prentice]

This Quercus robur was planted at the end of March. It never came into leaf and over the last few months started to produce basal shoots. The weather was warm and dry after it was planted, but it was well watered - another nearby Lime is doing well. It was planted as a rootballed heavy standard 14-16.

 

I dug it up this week and would appreciate some opinions on the roots. Do they suggest that the tree has been grown and prepared for root-balling and transplanting properly?  I would have liked to have seen a more typical root spread in all directions and more fibrous roots. 

[Ferguson system]

That root system is way too small.

 

 

[tree79]

Agreed many fibrous roots, it does look it's been field and lifted then root balled. 

Did it come into leave?

 

 

 

[Gary Prentice]

Didn't come into leaf at all. There was a lime planted at the same time, which leafed out normally. I thought the oak was just a little late, being ring porous, but looking at it mid summer there was no live cambium anywhere on the tree. 

 

Agree that it looks to be field grown, with limited undercutting (only once?) before being root-balled. 

 

I think I've read a spec of minimum root radius to stem size, but can't remember if it was a BS or a recommendation from somewhere else. 

 

In in the back of my mind, there's also something about problems with development of new roots after root pruning in oaks - but I might be confused.

[tree79]

Yeah not supised it didn't come in to leaf. The root system is poor and it's been root prune to hard.

Not sure what the bs states with out looking. Have you a copy?

[carlos]

iam no expert but i would have thought it should of come into leaf a bit rather than not at all, roots do look way to small though, so maybe another factor plus the small roots? also is the crown spread quiet large? most ones we get seem to be pruned back a fair bit. just throwing these points out there.

carl

[Gary Prentice]

I've got 'to establishment in the landscape' or whatever it's called ( the last one) and most of the Nursery ones. I'll have a look later.

 

7 minutes ago, tree79 said:

The root system is poor and it's been root prune to hard.

 

Id have thought that there was enough 'stored energy' in the buds for it to at least begin to develop leaves.

[Mark J]

I think that failure to ensure the viability of the root system of a newly planted tree, is one of the most destructive practices in the world of arboriculture.

 

It's good that nurseries have woken up to this, as spending just that little bit longer when planting a tree will cut down on preventable remedial work further down the line.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Mark J

[swinny]

10 minutes ago, Mark J said:

I think that failure to ensure the viability of the root system of a newly planted tree, is one of the most destructive practices in the world of arboriculture.

 

It's good that nurseries have woken up to this, as spending just that little bit longer when planting a tree will cut down on preventable remedial work further down the line.

 

 

Hi Mark,

 

can you elabourate on this please? Are you saying you would have refused the tree? Or saying that it should have been planted in a different way?

 

cheers

[Gary Prentice]

BTW. The tree was rootballed, so the roots weren't visible at the time of planting.