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February 2008
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My neighbor's been just dying to plant a shade tree in her front yard. Problem is... the only space available is inhabited by a little fig tree planted by the previous residents. She hummed and hawed for a while over what to do, and finally settled on transplanting the fig to another area. She tackled the job over the weekend. I advised her -- since the tree is small, but not as small as most nursery plants -- to dig a wide area around the trunk to accommodate the root ball. The tree has been in the ground about four years, and it should have put down some roots. I was wrong.
When I walked over the check out the progress I was shocked at how tight the root ball was. After staring at it for a few minutes I realized why. There was a sandy soil packed up in the roots -- it looked like a soil amendment -- very different from the thick, black clay in most of our yards. The roots appeared to have wrapped themselves around and around -- growing thicker and more and more tangled -- before finally reaching out into the surrounding soil. I'm no garden expert... but I'm pretty sure roots shouldn't look like that. The tree top looked so much larger than the roots could support. I guess it could be a tap root, but from what I've read -- 99 percent of trees grown in urban landscapes do not develop a tap root. Instead, the roots grow laterally and shallowly in the top 12 inches of soil. That must be why the tree was so small after so many years. One thing that I do know is how to plant a tree properly. If you didn't before understand why you SHOULD NOT use soil amendments -- take a look at the example above. I'm hoping the fig survives in its new location. It seems like it has a fighting chance. But if it doesn't, my neighbor wants to plant and orange tree. Mmmmmmm...... oranges. |
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