JT’s Tree Tips
The Leaves
What started out in December as a good rain year dried up fast these last two months. Warm days and no rain means you really have to watch your trees as the buds and shoots are pushing on many trees.
Everything is popping and we only have a short window open to transplant beeches, hornbeams, boxwoods and conifers. Be careful with aftercare if the leaves are showing on your deciduous trees. Hopefully the cold snaps are over and we won’t have to deal with frost damage on new tender foliage.
The Roots
Continue on your elongating species like conifers. But don’t bare-root conifers. You could lose them. If there is any field soil it must be removed, but if it is solid throughout do half of it this year and the other half next year. The half you do this year will be able to support the tree when you do the other half in a year or two.
If ANY tree has a good solid root mass with radial roots and free of field soil, don’t bare root it. Just cut back the exterior and bottom edges and clean the surface in a slant down from the trunk to the outside edge of the root mass. Be sure to cover this with new soil at the end.
Be sure to secure all trees in the pot with tie-down wires. If the tree is wobbly it will not develop lateral roots but will try to put down one or more tap roots again. Not what we want.
Broadleaf evergreens such as boxwoods and azaleas as well as junipers and pines are repotted in February and early March. Be careful as this has been a warm winter and everything is moving. Needle juniper is an exception - that can wait till May.
The Aftercare
At this point, return your transplanted trees to a sunny location unless you have done major root work. The angle of the Sun is relatively low yet and it will warm and stimulate the roots and get them going faster. Rotate your trees every couple of weeks or at least monthly for well rounded growth. Do watch out for late frosts. The weatherman always has a curveball in his bag of tricks.
You can be styling and wiring your conifers. Big bends are okay until about the end of March. Then you run the risk of detaching the cambium from the sapwood.
Don’t fertilize yet except for trees you want to fatten and young material in a pre-bonsai state. Not on mature trees you are refining.
Remember to continue your monthly fungal treatments, alternating different fungicides like copper, Mancozeb, Zerotol, Clearys, Daconil, etc. You need to mix it up for all those nasty fungi.
