The Planting Mistake That Is Hurting The Health Of Your Tree

Trees provide shade, beautiful flowers, and gorgeous fall color in our yards, giving us plenty of reasons to add them to our landscaping. But when we plant saplings, it's important to avoid the mistakes that everyone makes when planting trees – such as planting them too deeply. Putting these plants too deep in the ground can hurt a tree's health, because the tree's root flare needs to be above the soil level — not below it.

Many home gardeners may not be aware of this part of a tree's anatomy, leading them to this unfortunate planting mistake that ends up hurting the trees. Sometimes called a trunk flare, the root flare is where the roots start to emerge from the tree trunk, and where the trunk often (but not always) takes a slight curve. The tree flare says a lot about the health of a tree, including how well it was planted. When trees are transplanted too deeply, the specimen will suffer in multiple ways, including being subjected to a greater risk of disease and insect problems. Trees with buried root flares are more likely to die, putting both your hard yard work and well-earned money to waste.

To avoid hurting the root flare, start by unpotting the tree and removing any soil from around the trunk to find the flare. Sometimes there are a few inches of trunk above the flare buried in soil. Frequently nursery grown trees are mistakenly planted this way, arriving at your home much too deep in their pots. After unburying the trunk flare, loosen the roots so that you can spread them horizontally in the hole you dig. Dig a hole that is as deep as the tree's root ball and three times as wide. Mound soil in the center of the hole and position the tree on top of it. Cover the roots of the tree with soil but leave the top 1 to 2 inches of root flare above the soil line. Keep the tree well-watered until it's established.

Another mistake gardeners and lawn care companies commit in addition to planting the tree too deeply, is burying the trunk flare with a volcano of mulch. This harmful practice taking over America's lawns hurts trees in the same way as overly deep plantings. To save your tree's health when its root flare is covered with a volcano of mulch, scrape the mulch away so that it is 3 to 6 inches away from the trunk flare. When spreading mulch around a sapling, never mulch right up to the trunk, instead leave a few inches between the root flare and the mulch.