A Bare Root Tree Planting Program that Saves Money
Planting trees in communities can be costly and labor intensive due to the size of the tree (12-15 ft. tall, 2" caliper) (3.6-4.6 m tall, 5 cm caliper) that is required to assure survival on a street. The standard transplanting method, called balled and burlapped (B&B), contains a soil and rootball weighing about 300 pounds (140 kg), and usually requires heavy equipment to move and plant at a site. During the digging process for B&B trees, approximately 95% of the tree's root system is cut off and left in the nursery, putting these trees under stress or "transplant shock" for a few years. With limited funds, community tree programs must make their dollars go further, use volunteers, and show good tree survival if their program is to be sustained by the community with local tax dollars.
In April 1998, Extension Urban Forester Vincent Cotrone held a Community Forestry Conference in northeastern Pennsylvania where Dr. Nina Bassuk, Professor of Horticulture at Cornell University, explained her research involving an old method of transplanting trees bare root. She explained that transplanting trees bare root is nothing new, but by dipping the root systems in a hydrogel and bagging them, they were protected from drying out when out of the ground. These bare root trees had 200 more roots than B&B, which meant better survival and establishment of the trees, once planted properly. With the assistance of Extension Urban Forester Cotrone, two communities from Sullivan County decided to try bare root trees that fall, and drove to the nursery together to pick them up.
The extension urban forester quickly saw this pilot project turn into an annual and often seasonal (spring and fall) project of working closely with communities to select appropriate trees for their streets or parks and then helping to procure the bare root trees in one large group order. "By grouping the orders of 10-15 communities together, we begin to save lots of money in purchasing and shipping costs," says Vincent Cotrone.
Work begins in December and January, preparing orders for bare root trees for the spring. A community can order from 10 to 150 trees but must be prepared to pick them up at one of two drop off sites in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Working closely with the nursery, their digging schedules, and weather, the extension urban forester notifies each community contact about one week before delivery in mid-April. On delivery day, a refrigerated tractor trailer arrives at a preplanned site (usually a municipal public works garage) and volunteers unload 500 to 800 trees, checking orders and species as they are redistributed and packed into smaller trucks for a short drive to the communities. Municipal tree commissions then utilize trained volunteers or public works staff to get the trees planted and watered within 7-10 days, before they break bud. If the roots dry out before they are planted or break bud, the trees will probably die.
In total, these communities have saved approximately $1 million (assuming a $250 cost to install a B&B tree), making it possible to plant and care for more community trees.
"A great deal of work goes into planning this type of tree purchase and arranging for drop-off/pick-up locations" says Cotrone, "but the project has done more than saving dollars. The project trains community volunteers how to properly plant and care for these trees, and these volunteers, in-turn, become long-term stewards of the community forest. "It has been an extremely beneficial activity that helps build community cooperation within the region," says Cotrone. "Other states in the nation have been inquiring about how we plan and implement this group tree purchase."
In the past few years, this program has been expanded to southeastern Pennsylvania, organized by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society with assistance from Julianne Schieffer, Penn State Extension Urban Forester in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Planning begins in November and culminates with the spring deliveries and the unloading of the trees. In order to continue to provide this service and the advantages of bare root trees – both cost savings and labor savings – there are several requirements for each year's bare root tree order:
Membership in the Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Council. The Council provides financial support for the Extension Urban Forestry Program and produces the magazine Sylvan Communities. Visit the following website for more information: http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestrv/pucfc/index.html/ or contact the extension urban forester for a membership application.
A minimum order of ten (10) trees,
For communities who have not planted bare root trees, "Creating an Urban Forest: The Root Planting Method", a video from Cornell University that illustrates the bare toot planting method and its many benefits, should be viewed and used for training community volunteers.
A community representative must be present at the delivery site to help unload bare root trees and load their order for transport to their community. Bare root trees should be planted as soon as possible (within a few days).
All bare root tree orders are to be processed through the Extension Urban Forester in order to coordinate shipment and drop-off locations. The extension urban forester should be informed of all bare root tree orders and changes made to orders with the nursery.
Bare root tree harvesting is weather dependent. The Extension Urban Forester will be notified by the nursery as to the dates or harvesting and shipping. Delivery of trees can vary from the middle of April to early May for spring and the first two weeks of November for fallThe Extension Urban Forester will determine the drop-off locations based upon number of communities ordering trees, number of trees ordered by each community, the total number of trees ordered, and the number of trucks needed for delivery.
As with all new plantings, keep in mind the need to provide each tree with 10 to 20 gallons of water per week, rain or shine. The first year in the ground, the bare root trees will have sparse growth and smaller than normal leaves. In year two, the trees will look very good (if planted properly and watered) since they actually have more roots than B&B trees.
This article originally appeared in URBAN FORESTRY NEWS , Vol. 15, Issue 4, 2008
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