This is EXCELLENT advice. I planted a tree about 25 years ago whose roots were encircling the trunk and literally strangling it. An arborist advised corrective action to preserve the beautiful, but declining, live oak tree about five years. Believe me, it's much, much cheaper to take corrective action when planting. Also, it's far less traumatic to the tree, though my tree is once again looking great.

One of the things that my Dad taught me is that once you have dug the hole, 3 x the size of the root ball, and before you put the tree, shrub or plant in the hole, fill it with water, let it drain away and then do this two or three times. That way, the roots stay moist and have access to water for the first few days. We also put a handful of appropriate fertilizer in the bottom of the hole. Using this method, we have NEVER lost a plant and they have always got off to a good start. Even planting in Summer here in Australia.

for an of you home owners out there, you can use your garden hose to clean the root ball out. it gives similar results to his airspade just wetter.

I love when people who are passionate about what they do explain and demonstrate a topic most are not familiar with. Thank you!

Preach man, this problem is pervasive. It’s a self induced tree epidemic. Find the flare is what I tell people. There are hundreds if not thousands of trees planted too deeply in my town and the surrounding towns. It’s not just the girdling roots that kill the tree, it’s the fact that trees breathe through their root collar, and when it’s covered they suffocate. Also, the trunk rots when in contact with soil.

101 When you dig a hole put the dirt on a tarp instead of walking on it and killing the grass. You will leave the job clean that way. The root bags can also be removed and reused rather than cut away.

Water is fine instead of air spade. Less shock to tree. Nursery industry should offer discounts to root bound trees. Planting smaller trees that are not root bound is way to go, but is not part of commercial nursery industry. I have planted 3’ trees that were equal to or bigger than 8’ ers after 3 years because they did not shock out.

As a farm kid we learned the way to kill an existing tree was to pile dirt around the base and cover the flare, two years later the tree was dead and we would cut it down, buck it up into pre dried firewood.

The way you treated the roots is similar to how we prune and train roots in bonsai, just bigger.

Great video. Shows the difference between a “garden center” planting when they just drop a tree into a hole and someone who actually knows what to do and does it right.

I like to auger out a two foot deep by one foot wide hole. Then use half compost,half black soil to fill in the bottom half. With any conifer,since I am out on the prairie loam clay soil,I add gallon of iron Swarf (cuttings from a lathe or milling machine) from my Machinist friend and two gallons ash to the hole mix. The spruce trees in my yard point their branches at the perfect upward angle and are beautiful. The one I didn’t add Iron or Ash to is arthritic looking and lacking the proper posture. You see spruce like that all the time out here. The deep hole allows the roots to penetrate deeper and easier for water. Cheers from Sunny Alberta!

When I was planting in TN clay, I always used landscape gypsum in the hole,. It's supposed to help breakdown the clay over time.

I learned the folly of buying saplings 50 years ago from a good friend who owned a nursery he sold when he learned trees grow BEST from seed planted directly in their permanent home. Also, he shielded the sprout with a clear mylar cone, hole at the top, watered once. The seed caught up with a 3-year nursery tree in one year. And no root to untangle, no special hole, no fertilizer. I add heavy wood mulch to avoid bare ground eco-system, hold in moisture, encourage fungi. Some trees have tap roots, some trees have roots that grow laterally, spreading out near the surface. This calls for watering that meets their uniqueness.

I live in Moldova where I volunteer with Foster families and refugees. I live at the main Foster center where there are 12 homes on a large piece of land. There are hundreds of trees here. Almost every single one of the trees is bare root and planted about a foot too deep for 'support'. Oh, it is so aggravating. When I was explaining how to plant a tree properly, there response was, "Maybe that is the American way."

I'm so glad to see this on youtube, it took me a long time to hear this information and I was a landscape gardener for many years before I did. Burying the crown can also cause crown rot. Always check for the crown on potted tree. Nursery's don't always lift and add soil mostly just raise the soil level by throwing dirt on the top

Interesting planting. I am a pro tree fruit hort and past arborist. Temperate fruit trees respond differently to depth of planting. Most are grafted on rootstocks. Deep planting does not damage these trees as long as the soil is well drained. Trunk planted below soil level will quickly produce roots. If the graft union is below ground, the dwarfing and disease resistance of the rootstock will be lost. For proof, reaserch stoolbed propagation of fruit tree rootstocks

Gardeners in my area would just carve out a hole in the clay and stick the tree in it with some organic amendment and call it good. Then in a year or two, the tree ends up well below grade due to soil settling and blown-in mulching. You do good work!

Excellent video! This is how I learned to plant fruit trees from a very old neighbour who worked in his orchards his entire life....

Thanks for the tips, I always wondered how far you should go when spreading out the roots.

Diagnosis Spot On ! Excellent Service worth paying for ! 😉👍

I just blast all of the soil away with the hose next to the hole. And I only use the soil that I dug out of the hole to backfill with. I also found that if I have some stubborn soil or mulch that won’t easily come off with the hose will come out if I dip the entire root ball into a large bucket and swish it around. I am essentially planting a bare root tree by the time I’m done.

Great visual! Thanks for sharing…..you really explain it well!! I would imagine this holds true for many plants, trees or shrubs that go from container to ground!

Thank you for this wonderful, informative, illustration!

Great video thanks for sharing such valuable information. most people don’t realize the importance of the root flare being exposed and not covered

Pretty straight forward and to the point. Never thought about blowing the dirt out to loosen up the root ball.

Great video. My soil here in Oklahoma looks exactly like that... compacted clay. It seems like the clay would cause problems because it drains so slowly. The hole could fill up with water like a giant bowl. And in the spring, it could rain every other day filling the bowl back up before it could drain. Wouldn't it drown the roots? I thought about getting a trencher and cutting a trench from the hole to downhill somewhere, then back-filling with gravel to give the bowl a place to drain.

Very good knowledge based video. Man I have heavy clay in area. Usually have to do exactly like you showed 3x or 4x wide hole. I always thought deep was needed as well. Thank you for an awesome post.

Love this. Makes me realize that I planted a couple of our crepe myrtles wrong in the past. They’re healthy, but haven’t grown almost at all compared to when they were planted. And my mom way over-pruned them right after planting.

I always transplanted trees in the fall,after they have gone dormant for the winter. Way better survival rate when you do. The shock to the trees is very minimal when planting in the fall. Then come spring , the tree can wake up and do its cycle normally.

Thanks for this I really learned a lot. Solid work y'all.

We have heavy, black turf clay. We've learnt to make a tree planting hole 1 metre x 1 metre and square with very sharp corners, this lets the roots fill the planting soil and eventually escape at the corners. Round holes cause the same root ball as being in the nursery bag/pot.

THANK YOU for the education - truly appreciated.

thanks...thought this old grower how I've been doing it wrong for 7 decades! Never too-late to learn!!

Great tips. Thanks brother!!

Very correct way to plant a tree. He knows what he is doing!!!

Lots of great tips here. Thanks for making the video!

Thanks alot. This is very good info in regard to loosening the root ball of the tree before planting.

Damn that’s crazy! By being root bound it would choke it out smh. This explains a lot! Thanks for the video!

Of course big tree should be treated w care like bonsai, roots should always be radial! Great vid, now I know why tree in newly purchased house is poorly, it was planted badly. Thank you!

How interesting. How very interesting. Probably the reason so many of my newly planted trees didn't make it. Thank you.

Thank you for all this information ❤

I always think people take plants growing for granted. You're morally correct. Thank you.

If you use a tarp when you dig the hole, cleanup is easier, you save time, and it's a lot less messy

So informative 🙏 So living in a tourist town, coffee grounds are ever available and their process of growing the right fungi underground seems to a rate these clay soils so well. We have very little soil covering volcanic rock here, so feeding and adding earth that washes through with the rains and drought irrigation seems to bring it further into the volcanic gravel beneath. The tight clay that exists in between though is where the coffee helps so much. Your videos are very educating and I try to share them from my ♻️ Forests 🌳 playlist, but don't always get to KZfaq. Certainly worth the sharing and thank you.

thanks man i am from a farm orchard and a keen gardener you have confirmed what i always thought going to be much more careful now with roots and planting

Thank you for News 📰 ❤🎉

Learned a lot. I've made many mistakes. I've learned from your video thank you.

one of the most impressive vids I've seen, great job. I have 10 new fruit trees to plant replacing 10 that died. Now I think they died due to this issue.

Wish i had known this a month ago. We just planted Eastern Redbud a month ago. It had a 2 inch trunk and the root ball was huge wrapped in burlap. So far it is still doing well.

I didn't know about that problem, good info for future planting. I do use gypsum to break up clay soil though.

Thanks a lot! I learned a lot!!

This is some great info. I'm really excited about our cherries! Cheers!

Thanks so much for this! Regarding the soil amendment in the wheel barrow, what exactly was in it?

I did not know this about opening up the root ball. Thanks!

Awesome video, excellent explanation of what you're doing and why you're doing it. Thanks man!

Learned a ton. Thanks.

Love your video! Leads to another question (in addition to some of the great questions/comments below): What are you thoughts about pruning some of the branches to balance the pruning of the roots? I've been using this method in Western Colorado, and it seems to work well for me in this dry climate.

This was amazing. I tried to plant a cherry tree back in 1997, and it failed. Now I know why and will use these techniques to propagate some trees.

Thank you so much for such a great video!

My mother (may she rest in peace), whenever she bought new plants for the yard, or ones to put in her flowerpots, she'd tell us every time to loosen up the dirt, so that the root would be able to grow into the ground/new dirt in the pot that they were being transplanted into. If she was re-potting them, the new pot's would be at least 3 times larger than the ones the plants were previously in. I always wished I was as good at taking care of plants as she was, but mine never last as long as hers did.

Thanks for the video!

Thank you for that great information

"Plant high never die" learned this from a certified arborist.

Great info, thanks!

Useful vid, thanks! I'd be interested in a followup short vid that talks more about the staking at the end of the process. EG, how to attach the wires to the tree without concentrated pressure (from the wires) on the wood. Thx.

Excellent advice. This will come handy for my American Beech tree someday

Thank you fir the reminder of the root system.

Saving for future reference. Thank you!

I have always laid the tree on its side and gently pound it loose with my fist. The soil ends up falling away and exposing roots for me. Its always worked for me.

As an arborist, whenever it come to any kind of treework, the golden ratio is something to live by.

Where I live, there is a hard pan clay about 18" to 2' down. I dig below it, which none of the commercial planters seem to do. It's hard to get through by hand. I suspect a hydraulic auger could get thru fairly easly. That way the tree can root deep. Most of our trees fall over even after 30 or 40 years because the roots spread wide not deep.

excellent video. I've planted about 60 fruit/nut trees in southern Arizona and have had so many arguments with people about whether or not to amend the soil around the root ball. Our soil is compacted and devoid of organic matter so its hydrophobic, but also fast draining. Adding some manure and compost to the soil has made a huge difference in the results I've seen so far.

Question: Aren't you creating a bathtub effect by planting w a girdle of better soil + gravel in heavy clay?

Great content! Very informative.

I love being able to see all the roots in the root ball- so rad! I'm an arborist as well- but I work in a different region with a different type of clay soil. According to ISA materials I was always told that gravel being added to the hole doesn't benefit drainage. Now I heard you say that the gravel was to reduce compaction...I sorta get that, but also I'm in the midwest so I'm not sure if this varies from region to region.

Very helpful, thanks

You could have laid that tree on its side and pulled the bag off. Great bag to save to use for yard work!

Great Video...Thank YOu very informative I have been doing it about half wrong all these years.....

Excellent! This man clearly loves his profession.

I love this!!!

That was so freakin helpful! Thanks. (I’m a Hort student). 👍🌱

Nice to hear someone talk about not compacting the soil so the roots have an easy time growing. The air thing kind of blew me away but it looked to me like this tree should have been planted a year or two earlier. {edit} I rewatched and also appreciate his attention to the root flair ("Crown" in my world) and keeping that point level with the existing grade.

Thanks for the tips and it's a Good idea.

Very informative. Would this procedure apply to bushes as well?

Marvellous PPE use! (And planting advice)

Now I know why my last trees didn’t make it. Lol. Thanks, I learned a solid 5 tips here

❤❤ (Hollywood) where you belong. Thanks for the great opening act and the information.❤❤

Just planted the tiniest fig tree that was incredibly root bound. Did my best to correct it, fingers crossed it wakes up and grows good.

Great video!

excellent advice, well made video

In a compacted soil, a square hole prevents the roots from spinning

Yeah, Nice Information! I never had this in sight! Since one year i usually make the rootball free from most of the soil and try to make long roots a bit more lose. A nice and easy method to get rid of the soil is to raise the whole bag as high as possible and just push and drop it on a flat surface. Maybe you wont need even cut the bag apart! U can stomp on it and roll it a little.. Its fast, easy and effektive... Well, but if the Roots Are too much there are just some options like ur method from this Video! Simple Watering and weaging in a big bucket or water pressure and after that cutting out for some Airholes

i dont use the airhose i wash the roots out with a normal garden hose trying not to expose them too much because wet roots get sunburnt really quickly. then i just water them really good when they are planted (15 min full flooding) to wash them in. for clay soil add a mix of gravel and compost first so the bottom roots can find nutrients therefore the tree is rooting down faster, if you put the good soil atop like you did it will grow more roots at the top first which is unnecessary. and last build them a framework if they are the size of the tree you planted or a staff if they are smaller and tie them so the roots are not disturbed by wind. the tieups should be from 3 sides and not choke the tree. after 1-3 years the framework can be removed since the roots are now thick enough to hold the tree even in wind. no ties too tight ties are the most common errors i encounter at work. all in all good work. i hope that will help you out growing trees even faster and more consistent. keep it up, god bless you.

Ive always pruned off about a 1/3 of the roots when i put in a fruit tree thats been in a pot to long.i dig a larger circle than a deeper hole,and always put a can of sardines in water underneath. The only fruit trees that ive ever lost were i believe because it rained nonstop for over a week right after i planted....lost a nectarine and a plum.

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing!

As a bonsai person this is pretty common for me to do. Minus the air spade of course.

Thanks for posting this! And i must say your watch brand should pay for good advertising 😀.

What is wrong with a little shakey shake, kick it a few times, accidently cut the trunk with a shovel, and leave the tags on. Thats the standard when you hire a cheap landscaping company.

What are those root ball bags called? Where do we find them?

On the strength of this comprehensive video, I have just subscribed to your channel. As we all should know, there are right and wrong ways to do ANYTHING and it’s no wonder we see so many dead new tree and bush plantings performed by Joe and Jill Amateur! 😮😢😂