Expert: Jim Hyland - 10/27/2009

Question
some 10 yrs ago I had a contracter plant 6 very expensive pine trees.  the tree tops died off and the lower limbs at the ground grew to 7'.  due to the looks of the trees we had them dug up to find that all the roots were on the ground level and the wire basket was still intack with no roots comming out of the ball.  Should'nt the contracter removed the wire basket?

Answer
Several things were done incorrect--the wire and the burlap should be removed before the tree is set into the hole. The hole should be dug twice the size of the root ball and as deep. A saying we sometimes use is--do not put a $100 tree in a $10 hole. The top of the root ball is ok at ground level. IF the soil is clay do not use a machine to dig the hole (auger type) this tends to smooth the sides of the hole and in effect make a pot in the ground and the roots can not expand out into the soil. Top die back is the result of the root system not being able to provide the foliage with the water and 'food" that the foliage needs to grow and the tree will drop some of the foliage to try to balance out the foliage with the roots system. Sounds like a very poor job of tree planting.