wire rootballs

[daltontrees]

For what it's worth BS 8545:2014  Trees: from nursery to independence in the landscape – Recommendations

says

"8.4.8 All wire used for rootballing should be non-galvanized."

and

"Table 1.... Remove the wire cage where practicable. If this cannot be done, peel back the wire cage and hessian once the tree is in the planting pit."

 

To me the first bit is crucial, I would be confident that non-galvanised wire would rust away quickly.

 

When using the Platipus underground guying with the proprietary 'Plati-Mat', I think leaving the wire and hessian is preferable, to addd to the prevention of the guys cutting into the rootball, causing damage and instability.

[richy_B]

I plant 1000 or so rootballs a year (mainly 12-14 but quite a few 18-20s). I always get the tree in position and strapped them cut the wire top and trim back the Hessian. I don't remove it as a lot of the soil falls away and you lose all those fine roots. We replace 20-30 a year after 3 years and the Hessian has always rotted away and there are only a few bits of wire left.

 

For me it's always leave the bag on. If you are going to cut the bag off you might as well buy bare rooted trees.

[bumble B]

20 hours ago, carlos said:

when planting large rootballs wrapped in hessian and a wire cage do people remove the wire or hessian or cut it or just plant it as they got it???

thanks carl

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