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Planting and Transplanting: Trees

FERTILIZING NEWLY TRANSPLANTED TREES. In transplanting trees there is great danger that they may be over-fertilized. A tree which has just been transplanted has suffered a severe shock to its root system. It is not in a condition to utilize a great quantity of food. It must be supplied with food slowly and only in such quantities as it can readily take up through its root system. There is great danger of over-stimulating newly transplanted trees at the time when their leaves are not sufficiently developed to digest the food which is supplied, and hence instead of forcing more growth in the tree, a condition is apt to be brought about in the soil surrounding the roots and in the tree itself which retards growth instead of encouraging it. At the time a tree is transplanted a normal amount of well-rotted manure should be worked into the soil but not in direct contact with the roots. Not until the tree shows evident signs of regaining its normal vigour by developing leaves which are full size, and new wood of a normal length, should the tree be heavily fertilized. Such trees may be "tuned up" by feeding them with a mixed fertilizer of potash, dried blood, and bone meal. Such a fertilizer may be fed to trees during the year previous to the time that they are transplanted, in order to make them more vigorous and better able to withstand the shock of transplanting, or such a mixed fertilizer may be fed to the tree in small quantities, five to ten pounds to an average-sized tree (six to eight inches in diameter) within the first year after the tree has been transplanted. Under no conditions should a newly transplanted tree be left on a neatly mowed lawn area without artificial methods being resorted to for feeding it. The old saying, as quoted from Mr. Hicks, is that "Neatness is starvation." Nature provides a continual gathering of leaves and grass which rots and makes fertilizer for the tree. When the grass is kept closely clipped and the clippings taken away, and when the leaves are raked each fall, then this neatness deprives the tree of all of its possible source of food supply.

TRANSPLANTING NURSERY-GROWN TREES. Nursery trees are trees which have been grown under nursery conditions for at least two or three years. The most desirable method of handling such trees is to ball-and-burlap them, to lessen the danger of injury from transplanting. This applies to small trees with well-developed root systems, and especially to those which have been so root pruned that the root spread is in a smaller, more compact area than that of the usual nursery tree. Holes for nursery trees should be excavated at least one foot larger than the ball preserved with the tree.. In other words, the roots of the tree should never be pruned to fit the hole in which the tree is to be planted and the roots should never be crowded. It is quite essential to place small guy wires, not less than three in number, to each small nursery tree from two to five inches in diameter. This is especially necessary when trees are in exposed locations or stand alone as specimens.

When large plantations are set out and the trees will be subjected to broad sweeps of wind, it is more economical not to guy, but rather to watch the plantation, and from time to time straighten up such trees as are pushed out of their normal position by the wind. In an effort to build up plantations of native growth, such as oak, beech, hickory, basswood, and any other forest trees, it is better to plant these trees in concentric circles or a spiral arrangement so that during the first three or four years any one could cultivate among these trees without very much difficulty. If the trees in such plantations are staggered here and there without any relationship to any avenues through which DEPTH 1 IN. 2 IN.

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