Prepping my trees for the winter!
By n2organics
5 comments
What a busy day today!
After brushing up on my organic guru’s website,
Sick tree treatment explained by the Dirt Doctor
I went to work on a few of my trees, prepping them for the winter months.
The first order of business was to expose those root flairs!
Here’s my largest tree after the root-flair treatment. This was my preliminary soil removal :
After that step I used a pressure nozzle on my water hose to remove excess dirt from the flair that I could not dig away and the tree looked like this:
Note where the bark stopped. The entire root flair should show some bark in a healthy tree.
Here’s a view of the opposite side of the trunk.. You can see where the soil level used to be:
That project got me fired up and I attacked my Crepe Myrtle next and it had some serious issues! Here is a “before” photo:
Typical.. Too much mulch and soil piled up around the plant’s trunk. Crepe Myrtle’s have a very beautiful flair and thrive when the flair is dramatically exposed. Here is what a Crepe Myrtle’s root flair should look like when it is properly exposed:
Typical.. Too much mulch and soil piled up around the plant’s trunk. Crepe Myrtle’s have a very beautiful flair and thrive when the flair is dramatically exposed. Here is what a Crepe Myrtle’s root flair should look like when it is properly exposed:
Typical.. Too much mulch and soil piled up around the plant’s trunk. Crepe Myrtle’s have a very beautiful flair and thrive when the flair is dramatically exposed. Here is what a Crepe Myrtle’s root flair should look like when it is properly exposed:This is the opposite side:
Typical.. Too much mulch and soil piled up around the plant’s trunk. Crepe Myrtle’s have a very beautiful flair and thrive when the flair is dramatically exposed. Here is what a Crepe Myrtle’s root flair should look like when it is properly exposed:This is the opposite side:
Typical.. Too much mulch and soil piled up around the plant’s trunk. Crepe Myrtle’s have a very beautiful flair and thrive when the flair is dramatically exposed. Here is what a Crepe Myrtle’s root flair should look like when it is properly exposed:This is the opposite side:The “root flair exposure technique” will also work great on most “woody plants” also such as roses, butterfly bush, privets, and forsythias.
Typical.. Too much mulch and soil piled up around the plant’s trunk. Crepe Myrtle’s have a very beautiful flair and thrive when the flair is dramatically exposed. Here is what a Crepe Myrtle’s root flair should look like when it is properly exposed:This is the opposite side:The “root flair exposure technique” will also work great on most “woody plants” also such as roses, butterfly bush, privets, and forsythias.After all of the trees had the flairs exposed, they were drenched with compost tea, seaweed extract, and fish emulsion out to the drip lines to give them a little “boost”. I cannot wait ’till next spring! The guys will be the best in the neighborhood! {grin}
N2O
17 Oct, 2010
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Comments
When I think about it the trees in the woods tend to have therir'flairs' exposed, are we over mulching? I'm interested in how it affects my roses.
18 Oct, 2010
i thort roses were surpossed to be covered!
18 Oct, 2010
One of the most common causes of tree problems is being planted too deep in the ground. When any tree is in a stress condition, common predators such as "sap-suckers", web-worms, wood-peckers, and other "critters" can sense the increased sugar content in the tree's upper foliage.
Most "woody plants" will produce a higher sugar content to attempt to deal with a stressed condition.
The solution is NOT to treat the infestation with chemicals, but treat the plant's soil imbalance or rooting conditions that caused the infestation in the first place. ;-)
Heron and Cristina, I have always heavily mulched roses, but always keep a little 8 inch area around their root flair free of mulch and excess soil. Once that upper root flair "hardens off" (looks like the trunk) the plant will have much better resistance to severe cold conditions and drought. It also will keep the roses in a wonderful "no stress condition" and the foliage will look much more robust and vibrant. Give them about a year and watch what happens.. ;-)
19 Oct, 2010
o ok then will have a look at doing that gona put this in favs
19 Oct, 2010
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Really informative n2. A lot of (to me) "healthy" looking trees in woodland near me have numbered plates which, I believe, means the Wildlife Trust are keeping an eye on them for problems. As a total novice, I hadn't a clue how they could tell. Well, after reading your blog, I've now got at least one clue. Thank you.
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