Potting Up Trees and Shrubs
I love trees, and every year I plant hundreds, sometimes thousands, here at my farm.
Trees are crucial. They are the world’s single largest source of breathable oxygen, they absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, and they create an ecosystem to provide needed habitat and food for birds and other animals. Recently, we received a shipment of bare-root tree cuttings and other young shrubs from Musser Forests, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in conifer and hardwood seedlings and transplants. Once the young specimens arrived, my gardeners placed them in buckets and tubs to soak overnight and then hurried to pot them up, so their root systems can strengthen and develop before they're planted in more permanent locations.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This fenced in area at one end of my middle field was once used as a pumpkin patch, but it is now where we store and nurture hundreds of young potted seedlings.
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- Here is our latest order from Musser. I’ve bought many trees from Musser Forests Inc. over the years and have always been very pleased with their specimens. Bare-root trees are so named because the plants are dug from the ground while dormant and stored without any soil surrounding their roots. Soaking the roots right away gives them all a strong start.
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- Musser Forests, Inc. was established in 1928. Every year, Musser produces more than 35-million conifer and hardwood seedlings and transplants – plus, ground covers, landscaping shrubs, perennials, and ornamental grasses. They offer one of the broadest selections of plant material available from one nursery.
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- All the plants are either shipped in bare-root bundles, or smaller pots like these – always in great condition.
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- Our NYBG intern, Matthew Orego, and new gardener Josh Casalli, are tasked with potting up all the new specimens – 1000 of them. The trees will only remain in these pots temporarily – eventually, they will be transplanted in various locations around the farm.
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- Healthy bare-root cuttings should not have any mold or mildew on the plants or on the packaging.
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- The branches should be mostly unbroken, and roots, rhizomes, and other parts should feel heavy – not light and dried out. Each bare-root cutting is placed into an appropriately sized pot. The root section should fit into the pot without bing crowded at the bottom.
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- Josh plants each specimen carefully, so it is straight and centered in the container, with soil filling it up to where the roots start and the top shoots begin.
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- We save pots whenever we can – they always come in handy for projects like this, and I always encourage the crew to reuse supplies whenever possible. In an assembly line process, each pot is prepared with a small layer of soil ready for the tree and backfill.
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- Once filled it is tamped down lightly so there is good contact between the tree roots and the surrounding soil.
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- Then each potted specimen is sprinkled with fertilizer. Not too much – just a sprinkling for each pot.
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- We use Scotts Evergreen, Flowering Tree & Shrub fertilizer – an 11-7-7 formula that’s great for evergreens and many other acid-loving trees and shrubs.
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- Some of the evergreens include Mugho pines, Pinus mugo pumilio, also known as Swiss Mountain Pine. It’s a dwarf, low growing spreading pine with dark green, stiff needles.
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- Pinus thunbergii, the black pine, Japanese black pine, or Japanese pine, is native to coastal areas of Japan and South Korea. It is called gomsol in Korean and kuromatsu in Japanese. It grows 20- to 60-feet tall and 12- to 20-feet wide and features a flat-topped pyramidal form.
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- Picea abies ‘Nidiformis’ is the Bird’s Nest Spruce, a dwarf, needled evergreen shrub in the Pinaceae family. This shrub is called the Bird’s Nest Spruce because of the depression or “nest” in the middle of its compact, mounded habit once mature. It has light green or gray green foliage and grows up to eight feet tall and 12-feet wide over 30-years.
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- These trees are Austrian pines, Pinus nigra, or black pine, a medium to large-sized evergreen conifer that grows 40- to 60-feet tall and 20- to 40-feet wide. The dark green needles are longer than most – about four-inches in length.
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- This French strain of Scotch pine grows to 70-feet with a 15-foot spread. It’s a hardy tree with blue-green needles.
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- The Douglas fir is among the nation’s most important lumber species, making up half of all Christmas trees grown in the United States. It is a handsome tree with bluish-green needles.
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- These are the branches of the Golden Fernleaf False Cypress, a dense evergreen conifer with rich, textured foliage that is golden-yellow to bold green.
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- And these are Gold Thread Cypress shrubs, which will mature to large pyramidal evergreen conifers with fine textured medium green needles.
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- Many of the bare-root trees do not have leaves, so they are difficult to identify at this time. It is important to keep them separated by cultivar and always properly marked. These newest specimens will remain here for about a year until they are planted into the ground. Earth Day is coming up April 22nd. I hope you’ll consider planting a tree to celebrate.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
