Baby rowan

[richardhowell]

Hi everyone. I'm Richard, an ardent tree lover and just signed up here hoping to gain knowledge and advice! I live in SE England by the way.

 

I just discovered this (what I believe to be) a rowan sapling in the border of my patio. I'd like advice on how to nurture it and ask if it needs any protection from predators as it grows.

 

[Steven P]

Predicting some of the questions, what is the wall behind it - house wall or garden wall? Thinking of the future when this gets bigger, will it be a problem - maybe transplanting it somewhere more suitable?

[Will C]

A simple tree gard will do all the protection you need. After that soil, sun and water will do the trick.

I would replant it somewhere further away from the wall regardless of what the wall is. 

[petercb]

As Will and Steven have protect it during the summer then move it in the winter, they look lovely with the berries on them and don't get too big.

[sime42]

Also good for keeping witches from your door apparently, (as in the Scottish tradition I think.)

 

It shouldn't be relatively easy to dig up and relocate, growing as it is in what looks like gravel.

[richardhowell]

Thank you for those responses.

Yes - it was always my plan to transplant away from the wall at some stage. I have a small patio garden and I'd  like to put it in a nice big pot. Would it prefer sun or shade?

[sime42]

It would prefer sun. Just make sure it gets enough water if the weather turns hot and sunny, trees can dry the soil out quickly in pots.

 

 

[peds]

Leave it where it is for this season, you'd stress it out a bit too much if you tried to move it at this late stage. It'd be easily enough done if you took a decent sized bit of ground with it, but you would set it back a bit. It doesn't look like it's in the way there too much.

 

Build a little barrier around it to protect it from unintended traffic (stones, sticks, etc.), feed it little and often (compost tea once a week or fortnight, or occasional top dressing with chicken manure and seaweed pellets), and make sure it doesn't dry out. Wait until the next dormant season, December to March, and dig it up then, either into a pot or it's intended location. 

 

Where would you like it to live eventually? Depending on the ground you want to put it in, there's nothing stopping you from preparing the soil now. You'd not need to do much if it's moving into an already healthy garden,  but you could think about planting a deep-rooting green manure in the area to add organic material and to mine nutrients from further down in the soil, or you could mulch the area with well-aged and rotted woodchip to encourage fungal networks to develop. New ground or poor soil (former building sites, new estates, reclaimed ground, etc.) would greatly benefit from being inoculated with soil biota from a healthy woodland ecosystem: just steal a shovelful of soil from a decent forest (probably technically illegal, so be a little furtive about it...), mix it about in a few shovels of peat-free compost or aged manure and woodchip, and dig it gently into the top few inches of the intended spot for the rowan.

Seems like a lot of effort to go to now, but it will lay the groundwork for a prime planting location next dormant season. 

[Steven P]

"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow".... little bit of work now pays off in the future.

 

To add do dormant trees - if it has leaves, it is too late to move this year (without taking a great lump of soil and roots undisturbed with it).

[richardhowell]

If it's going into a pot I'm guessing it would need a good peat-free compost mixed with a percentage of manure. In what proportions would you say?