More importantly, Boxing roots to stop girdling.
Its been a long time since I’ve seen these. My parents have one growing on the side of their yard however they didn’t plant it, some bird must have left a dropping with some seeds. However, in the area I live these are not common. Its a lot dryer out here as well as the soil is heavy clay. This stops some trees from getting populated. So I decided to plant one of these to show you guys how to box roots mostly. I am excited for this tree though, I think the berries make great jams.
They aren’t very well known in my area, but are well known in the northern eastern parts of the US. So this will be nice to have, especially during the winter, the berries are very attractive for decoration. Many people hate the fruit. Don’t blame them, they don’t taste good. Only time they do taste “good” when they freeze then thaw, and then something changes and they don’t taste so bitter. But the birds love them and eat them throughout winter. You can make it into a jam or preserves, very popular in eastern Europe. There are also many species. Some with larger tastier fruits than others.
So I found myself a “Russian Mountain Ash” as the nursery calls it. However its just a Sorbus aucuparia ‘Rossica’ is it a real Russian variety? No idea, but this specimen is good up to zone 2b which I’m in zone 4 so it should grow just fine.
So lets go step by step. I have extreme clay soil so I do things a bit differently. Also I am a supporter of boxing the tree roots. You will see what I mean below.
Step 1. Lets dig a hole.
Ok ok, its going to be deeper than that.
Normally I dig a hole that is twice the size of the pot of the tree. However in this circumstance, I recently planted grass in this area and the soil is very loose. Also this is a small tree, and these guys grow like weeds once you get them some water. They don’t compete like other deciduous trees do with grass. The grass will not be a problem.
2. Get the tree ready. Get a basic wood saw. One or two handfuls of small rocks one inch or smaller should be fine, don’t go with pea gravel its too small.
You can see that the roots are starting to swirl around the outer most parts of the temporary pot. If left in this pot for a few years they will continue to swirl until they start chocking themselves and the tree will die.
3. Box the roots. So basically I take the saw and cut the root ball area into a box. Now this helps the roots by stopping any swirling growth that could in the future cause root girdling. We don’t want the tree to suffocate itself.
As you can see its not the perfect box but good enough, trust me the tree will thank you. It almost looks as if I am killing it when I was doing this.
4. At the bottom of the hole, put a few handful of rocks in there. If your soil is extreme clay, you can dig farther down and put more rocks into it. Some people overdo this step, they put enough rock in there that the tree cant grow its root system. You want the rocks to mix with the soil but also be loose enough for roots to grow through. Just a couple of handfuls will go a long way. This will help airflow for the roots so the clay doesn’t form an artificial pot and drown the roots. Sorry I didn’t have a photo of the rocks that I put in.
The soil in this spot is probably the best I’ve got in my yard except in my garden boxes.
5. Now fill it up to the top, but don’t go too deep, the graft or root flare should be seen above the soil. Now you can build a small outer dirt moat around the tree to help with water retention just go in a circle around the edge of the hole a few inches tall will be fine. But like I said, this is very loose soil in the spot where I planted so no need for that in my circumstance. There is also a sprinkler a few feet away that will douse this tree quite regularly.
6. Add some mulch. You can also put the mulch farther out but this is a smaller tree. We will see how it does with this much and go from there next year. You can add more mulch depending on how much you got. I try to do 1 to 2 inches of mulch per base, but don’t overcrowd the root flare.
So there are two reasons for the mulch. One is to keep the roots moist. The second is more important in my climate. You do it so that in early spring before the temperature gets above freezing at night during the day the sun will increase the temperature of the soil and give the tree a false impression that it is summer. Some trees will start growing and then freeze at night, this harms some trees that cannot stand the temperature swings.
You can also paint your tree with some regular house paint, some cheap white paint will help reduce sun scalding. The sun will reflect during the winter off the snow and in a way burn the young bark. The white paint reflects the sun back so you don’t have to worry about it burning up.
Trees in the North 