Planting a Balled and Burlapped Serviceberry Tree

To all of you who guessed Serviceberry-congrats! You all know the best kept secret amongst good gardeners. Not really sure why more serviceberries are not planted, but they are purported to be wonderful trees. We'll see since Tiger Gardens now has its very own serviceberry in the garden.

When I planned out my Patio Garden, I had all intentions of purchasing a real tree to go into this garden. What is a real tree? A real tree is a big, very big tree, with a very big root ball to match. Prior to going to Hillside Gardens I called the owner and asked him if he had any serviceberries. He was not sure as this year's inventory was just now trickling in. He told me that if he had any, they would have been left over from last year and that he would check his inventory and call me back. While I waited for his call I called several local Evansville nurseries. None had any serviceberries at the time, but they all told me I should check back soon. I was not in the mood to wait as this is a good time to plant balled and burlapped large trees-when they are dormant. I also had to contend with getting the tree back to Tennessee from Indiana. Now was the time.

The owner of Hillside got back to me. He told me he had 'Autumn Brilliance' and 'Snow Cloud' serviceberry cultivars in stock. I hopped into the truck and headed his way. When I arrived I found that he did indeed have these two cultivars in stock, but both were growing in a shrub form, that is they had multiple trunks and low limbs. This was not what I had in mind for my garden. Well, since this particular nursery is a big commercial nursery that not only sells plants, but also installs them, there was an extra bonus sitting at the tree farm that was left over from a commercial job. It was a single trunked, 2" caliper serviceberry, cultivar 'Trazam', also known as 'Tradition'.

I had never heard of 'Trazam' and was at a loss because I did not research 'Trazam'. I was not sure this would work for me. The nursery worker had no idea what it was either. He simply informed me that it was left over from a commercial job and was not a tree they normally carried. 'Trazam' was not listed in any of their nursery books, but bless their hearts, they let me use their Internet so I could Google 'Trazam'. I found out 'Trazam' would work for me in the Patio Garden, so I bought it. I am hoping it does well as there really is not all that information on the web about 'Trazam'. I'm getting off track though, back to planting balled and burlapped.

Do you see how big that root ball is in the back of Mr. Fix-it's truck? Since the tree is a 2" caliper, normally you have a root ball that equals 1 foot for every inch of caliper; therefore the rootball on my tree was 2 feet in diamter. A pretty big rootball. The really heavy part though was probably more the tree itself. This tree is a good 12'-14' tall and hung out the back of the truck by at least 8'. What a big tree!

I first dug the hole for the tree. It is recommended to dig the hole for servcieberries quite large because the roots like to spread out. Since my garden was already raised by about one foot off from the grade and was turned into a big garden, I felt the roots could spread out in the entire garden. I did not dig the hole quite as big as it is recommended to dig (5 times the size of the root ball, hence a 10 foot hole), but dug quite a hole nonetheless. There it is above, though it is hard to see it. When planting trees, generally speaking you should dig a hole two to three times the size of the rootball, and no deeper than the rootball. The vast majority of trees die because they are planted too deeply. Some folks recommend planting trees an inch or so above grade to allow for settling. This is good advice. Serviceberries also need good drainage so going high rather than low works to my favor. Another benefit of planting in raised beds such as the one I built.

Okay, the hole is dug, the tree is off the truck, now what do I do with the balled and burlapped tree? Well, balled and burlapped, also known as B & B, is quite literally a tree with a root mass that is in a the shape of a ball, or bowl, that is usually then wrapped with heavy wire, then surrounded with burlap, and all tied together with rope. Most all burlap now a days is treated to retard rot. This was the case with my tree because I made a point to ask the nursery man who applied the burlap to the rootball while I watched. He said it is important to have a good burlap and wire cage in order to ensure the rootball does not fall apart. This rootball was pretty darned tight, and I doubt that even if it was completely bare that there would have been any damage to the rootball.
I prefer to remove both the burlap and wire cage from any trees I plant. You of course remove the ropes. Removing the cage and burlap is not a normal procedure, but one that is worth the extra effort as I believe the roots have an easier time growing out and away from the initial rootball into the surrounding soil. Additionally you don't have to worry about girdled roots when the wire cage is gone. Getting off the burlap was not a big deal. A few ropes, tons of spikes and the burlap was removed, the wire cage was a bit more difficult. I was told this tree was in the nursery for about one year. As such, the roots had filled in the wire cage pretty tightly. I was unable to get the wire cage off by pulling it, so I resorted to wire cutters and cut it away from my tree. Now I was ready to plant!

Jimmy and I rolled the tree into its spot, making sure to site it the way I wanted it, then I backfilled the hole. I do not normally add conditioners to my planting hole, but feel organic matter is important. So compost is always added to all holes I dig and plant plants into. I have never lost a tree, shrubs yes, trees no. Such was the case with this serviceberry. I filled the hole halfway up with soil, applied water and stamped the soil down, then filled the rest of the hole. I wanted to be sure there were no air pockets that would dry out the roots. Once all was packed down, I applied a mulch of newspapers and leaf mold, and let Mother Nature do the rest. I hope my new serviceberry does well and will be sure to post on its progress as time wears on.

So that is how I plant balled and burlapped trees, how do you plant them? Any other tips for planting balled and burlapped trees? And does anyone have experience with serviceberries? Ever heard of Trazam?

in the garden....

Note to local readers: Rural King has 'Autumn Brilliance' multi-trunked serviceberries at their Fort Campbell Blvd store if you are interested in purchasing one for your garden.