Bellevue, Washington Latest videos, 28 Sep 2021

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From YouTube: How to Plant a Tree

Description

Learn the basics about the right way to plant a tree in your yard.

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Before you even get your treat, the most important thing that you can do first is to call 8-1-1 or visit call before you dig.org, so that they can mark out all of your underground utilities and that's really important, because not only when you're planting your tree, because you don't want to hit them, but it's also important long term so that you'll be able to access your utility and the tree roots won't interfere with that because that's bad for both your tree and your utilities.

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So this is the spot we've selected to plant your tree, there's no underground utilities here, there's no above ground utilities and it's far away from the property line that the tree is not going to overhang on the neighbor's yard, even when it's mature. It's also far enough away from the building that it won't be a threat in terms of falling limbs in terms of gutters, or anything like that.

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So now we're ready to prepare our tree, and we want to do this so that we know how large our hole should be to prepare the roots. What we want to do is gently press.

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On this pot, until it will slide easily out.

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And now we're going to loosen up all of the soil from the tree roots.

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It's really important to loosen up the roots so that they're going to grow outward ultimately and not stay circling the pot that will help keep this tree stable and healthy.

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Now that we've unpotted the rip ball, we want to look for the trunk flare, so it's a little bit trumpet or cone shaped it's right about here. The reason that finding this is really important is that this is one of the major places that trees do gas exchange, inhaling carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen, and we need this to be above the soil so that your tree will be able to grow strong and healthy. We want to look for the first major chunky root, which I'd say: is this one?

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And if there are any small tiny roots, now is a good time to remove those, otherwise they can grow up and strangle the tree later we have a big circling root right here, that's going to prevent the trunk from getting larger and we want to go ahead and remove that.

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If you have any water shoots, that's little gross that will have leaves on them. Now is a good time to remove those also and now we're ready to dig our hole.

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So now that we've prepared our tree, what we do is we want to dig our hole about as deep as the ritz that we just prepared and about two or three times wider.

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Once we've dug our hole, we want to test it. We want to make sure that when we put the tree in it that the rip flare is above, ground level looks about right. So now we're ready to plant our tree. Now that we've tested the depth of our hole, you can always add the soil back in or you can take more out if you need to so now. We actually are going to put the soil back in our hole, and I want to talk a little bit about not putting in soil amendments into your hole.

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The reason we don't want to do this is because we want the tree roots to grow out as far as possible a mature tree. The ritz will be at least as long as the tree is tall, and we want that to happen to keep it stable and healthy.

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If you put amendments in the hole with the tree, it can cause several problems now that I've basically filled in the hole I'm making a little raised area with upside down sod. That's going to help keep your mulch in, don't forget to leave an area about two or three inches away from the trunkier tree. So you don't cover your root flare, no mulch volcanoes, please and then we're going to water our tree.

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That looks like it's probably about good, so the best time to plant a tree is actually autumn or winter, even though we think about our gardens most in the spring and summer autumn and winter are best because your tree is dormant and the reason that is is because, in the spring before your your tree, flowers or leafs out a hormone goes down into the roots and causes a lot of root growth and because, during planting you tend to damage some of the roots.

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It's really important for your tree to have that nice winter rainy season get established to its new home so that it can be ready to thrive come spring and summer. As far as staking goes most trees, don't need staking. The only reason you would really stake. A tree is if it's still falling over after you fill in the hole. If you stake it, when it doesn't need staking or you stake it improperly, that could lead to weak wood in the long term, which could compromise the strength of your tree once it's older, so to review.

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Call 811, prepare your roots, dig your hole, root, flare, rit, flare, root, flare, mulch water and enjoy, and that's how you plant a tree.