Gardening 101: How to plant a tree
(CBSDFW.COM) - Texas Arbor Day is on the first Friday of November. It is better to plant a tree around here in the Fall instead of Spring. This gives the tree time to grow out its root structure to help survive the brutal hot and dry summer headed its way.
The Texas Tree Foundation Cool School Program plants their school campuses around Texas Arbor day for this very reason. On the week leading up to Arbor Day they gathered at SAN JACINTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN DALLAS to teach kids how to plant a tree. The different classes spent a part of their school day planting over eighty trees around the campus. Over last summer, the Texas Tree foundation had already built out the outdoor classroom, the community trail and an addition to the playground on the campus. The week after the big planting, special equipment was brought in to plant a half-dozen trees that were much larger. These went around the expanded playground.
When the kids starts this year at San Jacinto, the campus had only 4% of their school ground covered in shade. In ten years the new trees will increase that to 40%. I've done other stories on the Cool School Program, I'm a huge fan. I'm hoping this program will soon spread to ALL school in Dallas and more school districts in north Texas and the state. The trees pay for themselves over the next decade by reducing electric bills (shade is a powerful thing).
The main point of the story centered on the fact that Texas Arbor Day time to plant a tree. You can do this really anytime once the cool weather shows up in Fall. But you MUST plant the tree correctly. The highest risk for tree morality is transferring the tree from a container to its forever home. Sometimes it'll take years for the tree to fail (usually because the roots didn't grow out from the tree but instead grew in circles around it, chocking it off).
Here is a video by the Texas Tree Foundation on how to plant a tree correctly.
Picking the right tree for the spot you are putting it in is also VERY important. Use the Texas A&M Forestry tree selector software to find the right one for your yard.
Some of the most common mistakes? Not cutting away wrapped roots in the container (this will slow down the tree's initial growth, but the roots will grow OUT not around the ball). Also, planting the tree too deep and creating a low spot where water will drown the tree in a hard rain. Never amend the soil; use the same dirt you dug out of the hole (that is 2-3 times as wide as the container) to plant the tree in. Make sure to water right then and water every few weeks until the tree is established. This means watering at least once a month across the first two summers (more it we are in a hot, dry spell).
Ninety percent of the tree's roots are only a foot deep in the ground around it. The underground portion of a tree looks more like a pancake than a tree. As the tree grows, water along the edges of the canopy (the roots grow out before the canopy follows).
The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. Or in the Fall.
P.S. Please consider donating to the Cool School Program. To see children working together to plant a tree for a future generation of school kids? That is worth every penny.