The Dirt Doctor - Favorite Trees

The Dirt Doctor - Trees: Best Choices for Dallas/Fort Worth Bald Cypress Bigtooth Maple Black Cherry Bur Oak Canby Oak Cedar Elm Chickapin Oak Chinese Pistachio Crape Myrtle Dawn Redwood Desert Willow Drummund Red Maple Eastern Red Cedar Eve's Necklace Italian Stone Pine Japanese Maple Lacey Oak Live Oak Magnolia Mexican Buckeye Mexican Oak Mexican Plum Mexican Sycamore Montezuma Cypress Pecan Red Oak Redbud Rusty Blackhawk Viburnam Sabal Palm Scarlet Buckeye Texas Ash Trident Maple Yaupon Holly

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=1765

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Education

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• Howard
• Garrett
• Dirt
• Doctor
• trees
• Texas
• garden
• Dallas

[Chsgrl76]

We planted a Shantung Maple October 2009 and it is having real issues. The trunk bark is splitting and now the leaves on the main trunk are dying. We are not sure what is going on. We deep water every 7 - 10 days, we apply tree goop, and sick tree treatment, and Captain Jack's Dead Bug.

[TheDirtDoctor]

@Chsgrl76 We're seeing a lot a damage this year. Make sure the trunk flare is exposed dramatic and probe the soil to see if the moisture level is good.

[creolelady182]

I have a 70 year old oak and it does have a root flare. So much so that I can not even plant anything around it

[soilhumic]

I've viewed all of Tyson's video's on root flare and I must say that we have over 1000 trees planted in our arboretum from direct seed sowing on site. I checked today to be sure I was truthful, and none have a root flare if their trunk calipers are under 12". Some of the oaks are now 45 feet tall at 10 years of age with a trunk caliper at 18" and still no root flare. These are trees grown from seed the way nature does it, so I'm not convinced that looking for a root flare is 100% dependable.

[soilhumic]

90% in some markets but not all! It's rare to see trees planted too deep in our area of New Mexico. When dealing with a young fast growing tree, there is no root flare, just a line of demarcation between root tissue and bark tissue. The key, don't bury the bark tissue. I'm not for hire by the general public, I own a tree farm in New Mexico producing thousands of finished trees per year and I own a bio lab and nursery that produces mycorrhizal products which we sell world wide.

[TheBrassHole]

Well not just a structural significance. lol

This is why 90% of root flares are covered in landscaping. Because of lack of knowledge. If you really believe root flares are mostly for structural significance then I will make sure not to hire you. lol No offense.

[soilhumic]

Not as part of our business. We do teach proper planting techniques but as a rule buried trunks are not an issue in New Mexico landscapes. I'm also not a fan of the concept of a root flare as not all trees need to have an obvious flaring of the root crown exposed in their rapid growth of juvenility. Root flares are really more a structural significance of a more mature tree. Regardless, planting trees too deep is a bad idea.

[TheBrassHole]

So are you guys exposing root flares? lol

Make sure.

[soilhumic]

Acer truncatum - or the Shantung maple is certainly a nice tree and one we promote. But it's not as colorful as the native sugar maple called Acer grandidentatum - the Bigtooth Maple. Howard says that the Bigtooth Maple is slow growing but we've been producing this species for over 25 years and find it a rapid growing tree, adding 3 to 5 feet per year! The key is finding a healthy mother tree to collect seed from.

Michael Martin Meléndrez - owner of Trees That Please - New Mexico