Texas Garden Tip: Tree Trunks

Be honest. How many times have these thoughts crossed your mind? Each is critical to the survival of every tree in your life.

• Carry new trees by their root balls, not by their trunks. Grab ‘em by the trunks and the root system is likely to fall apart.

• Plant new trees at the same depths at which they were growing previously. If you let them sink 1-2 in. below grade (or lower), their roots will be too deep, and the tree will probably die a slow death. You want the “root flare” to be near the soil surface.

• Do not pile loose soil or mulch around the trunk to create a “mulch volcano.” Use loose soil to create a watering berm 16-20 inches out from the trunk. Fill that reservoir a couple of times weekly during warm weather. Don’t rely on rods, watering bags, or other gimmicks to water – just fill the basins. Do so for the first 2-3 years.

• Be certain the new tree is held vertically until it’s well rooted in its new home. That means staking and guying it carefully. If it leans out of plumb, you’ll never get it straight again unless you dig and reset it.

• The cylinder of tissue that carries manufactured sugars from the leaves down to the roots is called the phloem. It is just inside the bark. If the bark is damaged, the phloem will be lost. If you leave a guy wire, nylon cord, or other support line around the trunk too long the tree will grow around it until the line girdles it. Roots will die and the tree will be lost.

• Wrap the trunks of trees with thin bark (oaks, maples, pistachios, and others) the day that they’re planted to protect them from sunscald. Prior to being planted they have been shaded by one another in the nursery. Use paper tree wrap from the ground up to the lowest limbs. Leave it in place for first couple of years.