David Epstein: Hi! I’m David Epstein, this is Growing Wisdom. I’m with Wayne Mezitt in a row of gleditsia trees. And Wayne, what is so wonderful about this tree?
Wayne Mezitt: The honey locust tree is a one of the best trees for dappled light shade. It doesn’t cast that heavy shade that nothing grows under.
David Epstein: And then not messy either?
Wayne Mezitt: It’s a nice clean tree and sometimes you see these huge seedpods on some of the locust trees, these don’t have seedpods.
David Epstein: And the leaves are a little bit smaller so they tend to blow away, different than an oak or maple with leaves that are really heavy.
Wayne Mezitt: Yeah, they are really not a problem to clean up in the fall.
David Epstein: So, I want to show you guys the process of moving this big tree. So, talk about that a little bit.
Wayne Mezitt: Well, the first step is you have to choose a location that’s appropriate for the tree. You want to make sure you’ve enough room for the tree to mature in, you’ve got the right soil conditions, you can get to it with the tree mover. And if you like to dig the hole ahead of time either with the tree digger or with a back hoe so that the hole is ready for the tree to go in. And you have to size it appropriately.
The next step is to go and get the tree dug with a tree digger. And you position the digger around the tree very carefully so that it’s centered and it captures much of the root system as possible. You dig the tree with the tree digger which is a very quick process then you lift the tree out of the ground and tie it to the tree digger so that it’s secure for the trip to where it’s going to go. Pull the top in, tie it in, so you can get it over the road, cover it so it doesn’t get whip by the wind. Transport it to the location where you want to plant it and then put it down in the hole with the tree digger.
And at that point, you lifted spades off of the tree and you backfill the soil. And you sort of do it concurrently so that you end up with a root system that doesn’t shift, doesn’t move. Then you form a saucer around the root system and you make sure you water them thoroughly after you tamp the soil in. Before you plant it in, you also want to make sure that these nutrients were in the soil. We like to use phosphate. And that helps increase the root health and root growth once it’s in the soil. We don’t recommend fertilizing the tree for the first year or so until it gets established and the root systems are spread out into the new soil.
David Epstein: So, instant large tree, comeback every week for all of our tips, hints, helps here at Growing Wisdom.