council - poor attempt at street planting

[Sam Smith]

this is my first post guys so please be nice

 

im at myersough doin my ND, and ive just come back home this weekend to find 5 new rowan trees on my street. i thought this was great! however, at a closer inspection ive soon realised every single one has been panted waaayyyyy too deep and all the soil from the original hole has been piled up the stem (overall there is about 15'-20' inch from the rootball to the surface where the soil has gone up the stem) so, ive raked away all the excess, and tbh its abit of mess. all the neighbours have been out noseying whilst ive been raking away and now ive been told they wasn't even removed from the bags the came in:blink:

 

im thinking of sending an email onto the council to see what they can do, or/ also a simple PDF on tree planting, just to educate them a little.

 

any tips or pointers on what to do?

 

cheers

SAM DREAD

[likeitorlumpit]

you don't have to remove them from the bags- they are usually biodegradable and the damage from removing them outweighs the other issues.

12inches buried not so good though there will be settlement and is this the distance from the top of the soil to the bag or is it the distance to where they were grown in the nursery- you can check that by noting the change in bark colour.

There may be other reasons. I'm sure the council know what they are doing.

[Mark Cattell]

you don't have to remove them from the bags- they are usually biodegradable and the damage from removing them outweighs the other issues.

12inches buried not so good though there will be settlement and is this the distance from the top of the soil to the bag or is it the distance to where they were grown in the nursery- you can check that by noting the change in bark colour.

There may be other reasons. I'm sure the council know what they are doing.

 

I agree

[Le Sanglier]

you don't have to remove them from the bags- they are usually biodegradable and the damage from removing them outweighs the other issues.

12inches buried not so good though there will be settlement and is this the distance from the top of the soil to the bag or is it the distance to where they were grown in the nursery- you can check that by noting the change in bark colour.

There may be other reasons. I'm sure the council know what they are doing.

 

Agreed, when I left college (when God was a boy) I thought everyone was doing it wrong. let it slide, i bet they'll be fine.

[Mark Cattell]

E-mail your concerns as they seem warranted, also cc you local councillor as that always rattles the right cages...

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

E-mail your concerns as they seem warranted, also cc you local councillor as that always rattles the right cages...

 

agreed

 

cant believe some would let this slide, standards are standards, wouldnt couldnt walk by this without sorting it myself, its my trade.

[Johny Walker]

amy pics off trees

[Goaty]

Not suprised! one of our local councils comes to the Tree Nursery I subbie for, to collect container/rootball trees. They come with an empty iveco pick up with a twin axle trailer, (They refuse to reverse in lots of space) to collect four trees probably 15 feet high 14/20 girth. Four lads come always, in expensive chainsaw ppe, even in the height of summer (Image or H&S?) We load them by hand or with forklift. The council usually have up to 100 trees on order stood in the yard for months over winter.

 

Why four come for the ride when we load is laziness, if they get 4 trees before 12 they will say "Be back 1st thing in morning" that is 10 o clock! or later. They are about 20 minutes away from the nursery. I have on my own planted 21 heavy rootballs and staked them in horrible clay soil in one day. I know a tree officer on the said council. He told me the holes are already dug for them by machine!!!!!!!! These guys are poor value of tax payers money. Hopefully other councils have more effective gangs.

 

Back to thread,

Rowans are weak in the root zone and are not the best tree by far for stable establishment. Being a pot grown and street tree(particular growth habit desired) the are almost guarenteed to be a grafted cultivar. The deep planting will of buried this and likely cause suckering of rootstock and other problems. Again due to root weakness the pot even if biodegradable it will hinder Sorbus (rowan) establishment considerably. Did you notice what kind of container? Woven plastic, not good. Paper fibre, acceptable. Solid plastic, very bad. Or perhaps due to them taking so long to plant, hessian wrapped rootballs, very late in season and high risk without irrigation.

[Sam Smith]

like goaty said, the fact that they are in a bag can only slow down root establishment, making them more unstable. (they have no stakes or support either) a neighbour says its the same material as a ton of sand would come in...

i cant let this slide tbh as its on my door step, im going to be walking past them almost daily, give us a break lad im only giving them some tlc , im only going off what ive been taught at col, they havnt done anything right by the looks of thing, beariing in mind its all textbook teaching, maybe they will be fine and im over reacting but 'standards are stanards'

 

all this seems to be a massive waste on the councils behalf as its only goin to cause a string of problems i can imagine, not to mension the beating they are going to recieve of the lads with strimmers, every other tree on the street takes a few blows near the base from strimmers each year, some of which has caused cracking from the base upwards.

 

cheers for the response guys, much appreiciated.

[Goaty]

Go for it Im behind you. The bag weave material will strangle or stunt most of the roots on rowan, they have little chance. Your complaint should tighten up planting for trees in the future.

It looks like they deep planted to avoid supporting the trees.

Street trees need all the help they can get.