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Tag: tree health

10 Rules for Planting Trees This Spring

Posted on by Brooke Garcia

By Brooke Garcia

This article was originally posted on March 18, 2021 on K-State Research and Extension News. For original article, please visit: Ten rules for planting trees this spring

Ten rules for planting trees this spring 

K-State horticulture expert shares tips to set you up for success

MANHATTAN, Kan. – If you’re planning to plant a tree in your yard this spring, there are some steps you can take to make sure your new landscape has its best chance of success.

Kansas State University horticulture expert Ward Upham shares the following ten rules for planting trees:

  1. Select the right tree for the site. To avoid serious problems, choose trees that are adapted to your location. Consider whether the tree produces nuisance fruit or if there are disease-resistant varieties available. For example, there are a number of crabapple varieties that are resistant to apple scab and rust diseases. Also consider the mature size of a tree to be sure you have enough room. Ask a local nurseryman for suggestions for trees adapted to your area.
  2. Keep the tree well watered and in a shady location until planting. When moving the tree, lift it by the root ball or pot and not by the trunk.
  3. Before planting, remove all wires, labels, cords or anything else tied to the plant. If left on, they may eventually girdle the branch to which they are attached. The root flare (point where trunk and roots meet) should be visible. If it isn’t, remove enough soil or media before planting so that it is.
  4. Dig a proper hole. Make the hole deep enough so that the tree sits slightly above nursery level. Plant the tree on solid ground, not fill dirt. In other words, don’t dig the hole too deep and then add soil back to the hole before placing the tree. The width of the planting hole is very important. It should be three times the width of the root ball. Loosening the soil outside the hole so it is five times the diameter of the root ball will allow the tree to spread its roots faster. 
  5. Remove all containers from the root ball. Cut away plastic and peat pots; roll burlap and wire baskets back into the hole, cutting as much of the excess away as possible. If you can remove the wire basket without disturbing the root ball, do it. If roots have been circling around in the container, cut them and fluff them out so they do not continue growing so that they circle inside the hole and become girdling roots later in the life of the tree. 
  6. Backfill the hole with the same soil that was removed. Amendments such as peat moss likely do more harm than good. Make sure the soil that goes back is loosened – no clods or clumps. Add water as you fill to ensure good root to soil contact and prevent air pockets. There is no need to fertilize at planting. 
  7. Don’t cut back the branches of a tree after planting except those that are rubbing or damaged. The leaf buds release a hormone that encourages root growth. If the tree is cut back, the reduced number of leaf buds results in less hormone released and therefore fewer roots being formed. 
  8. Water the tree thoroughly and then once a week for the first season if there is insufficient rainfall. 
  9. Mulch around the tree. Mulch should be 2 to 4 inches deep and cover an area 2 to 3 times the diameter of the root ball. Mulching reduces competition from other plants, conserves moisture and keeps soil temperature closer to what the plants’ roots prefer.  
  10. Stake only when necessary. Trees will establish more quickly and grow faster if they are not staked. However, larger trees or those in windy locations may need to be staked the first year. Movement is necessary for the trunk to become strong. Staking should be designed to limit movement of the root ball rather than immobilize the trunk. 

Upham and his colleagues in K-State’s Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources produce a weekly Horticulture Newsletter with tips for maintaining gardens and home landscapes. The newsletter is available to view online or can be delivered by email each week.

Interested persons can also send their garden- and yard-related questions to Upham at wupham@ksu.edu, or contact your local K-State Research and Extension office.

Dutch Elm Disease

Posted on by kennelly

(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)

“Dutch elm disease -is that still out there?”

“Elm trees – are there any of those still out there?”

Those are two questions, flip sides of the same coin, that I hear every year. The answer to both is YES.

Judy O’Mara, Director of our Diagnostic Clinic, handles most of the tree samples and she has picked up DED in several samples this summer, like we do every summer. Sanitation (removing and destroying infected trees) is essential to DED management. If infected trees are near other elms, root grafts need to be disrupted first. For nitty-gritty details on DED you can visit this page – click HERE.

Here is a photo of the DED spore-producing structures in the dissecting microscope.

DED-synnemata

 

Dutch elm disease is caused by this fungus (actually two related fungi) which is spread by elm bark beetles. In the photo above, we see the black stalks and a creamy, gooey ball of spores at the top. The beetles pick up the spores and move them around from tree to tree. The fungus can also spread tree-to-tree in neighboring trees by root grafts.

Initial symptoms are “flagging” of individual branches, especially when the disease was introduced by the beetles. The disease spreads over weeks or months through the rest of the crown.

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(Photo courtesy Ray Ladd, K-State Research and Extension)

Branches wilt, but leaves remain on the tree. Disease can develop more quickly when triggered by root graft method of spread. Discoloration in the vascular tissue can be seen by stripping off the bark of recently-wilted branches:

DED-streaking-branches

 

For high value elms, preventative fungicide injections (appropriately-labeled products of propiconazole or thiabendazole) are an option to reduce the risk of Dutch Elm Disease (though it is not a 100% guarantee). This can be one piece of the DED management system. Remember, sanitation is a key piece of reducing the risk of DED (See the link above). Here is a photo of the big elm at the K-State Garden.Garden-ELM

This tree is on a 3-year injection cycle. We thank Matt Giese from Syngenta for providing some Arbotect fungicide to inject this tree, and we thank Randy James, Consulting Arborist from Tree Biologics, for generously donating his time to inject the tree a few weeks ago. We use our injection days to educate students, Extension Master Gardeners, and others about DED.

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