iDig a $100 dollar hole for a $25 tree

On a recent Saturday morning, Andy and Greg planted 2 fine specimens of white oaks (Quercus alba). Greg was tired from his late night with the volunteers while Andy read a book and went to bed at 10. Andy dug a fine hole, 3 times as wide as the root ball, with beautifully slanted sides. It also had the right depth, exactly one third of an inch shallow, just the way trees like it. He even roughed up the walls with his shovel to break up the red clay; he new it could only help.

Greg was moving slowly and since Andy wasn't watching, he figured 4 inches on each side of the ball should do, yet his vision was a bit blurred so it turned out to be only 2 inches. His holes' sides were straight so he crammed the clumps of clay into the tiny space between the root ball and the holes' sides.

While Greg was stomping dirt into the hole, Andy was chopping his clay into fine pieces and breaking up the clogs of dirt. He loosened the tree and lightly pulled his tree out of the pot, immediately grabbing it by the root ball. He looked at the root ball and made the decision to pull some of the roots away from the bottom and sides. Because it wasn't nearly as root bound as Greg's tree, Andy wondered why Greg did not make some vertical cuts one half inch in the root ball and cut a thin slice of matted roots at the bottom of the ball.

Andy stared and cringed when Greg pulled the tree up from the trunk because it sat in the hole too low, no doubt breaking roots and leaving an air pocket in the bottom of the root ball. Andy double checked his hole depth by borrowing Greg's shovel, while Greg was lying in the grass. Andy put one shovel horizontal across the hole and the other vertical inside the hole. He gingerly measured the root ball, again one third an inch shallow. The dirt slid down the angled sides of the hole. Andy made a reverse mote with the extra soil around the top of the hole. He placed the grass in the empty lot down the street while slowly watering his tree, which settled the dirt around the roots of the tree. As he mulched his tree he noticed 2 inches of the root ball exposed on Greg's tree, which were camouflaged by replanted grass.

While Greg went for coffee, Andy quickly replanted his tree, which grew a bit slower but made a fine specimen 20 years later.

The Moral of this story is:

Details are important, always remember to dig a $100 dollar hole for a $25 tree. And don't party with Greg on Friday night.