Oak Tree Planted

The Rainbow Gardens planter brought my 12 foot high Monterrey Oak and planted it on Monday July 23.   He started before 10 am and was finished by 10:30 am.

It is a beautiful young tree!  I have now planted my first 3 trees in less than a month!

After seeing his finished work, I was initially worried that he had planted the tree too low in the ground.  I didn't think I could see the flair at the bottom of the trunk, or roots coming out of the trunk.  I mentioned this to him, but he said he had done it correctly, with the top of the root ball exactly at ground level.  (It was hard to tell exactly where ground level was at that time because he had also piled an inch or two of mulch on top of the root ball.)  According to what I have read, the lowest part of the trunk, or top of the root ball, should be planted just about 1/2 to 3/4 inch above the grade.

Anyway, I let it pass, as I think it will work out anyway either (a) because I am making a mountain out of a molehill, (b) me who has never planted a single tree arguing with pro who plants several trees a day, (c) the ground isn't really flat enough to say exactly where the ground level is and there's some kind of weed mowed to 1 inch on top of it, (d) there is a guarantee from Rainbow Gardens who will give me another tree if this one dies, (e) the tree is on a slight grade so that by the time you are 2 feet away, it is down more than an inch, and for that reason water should not be trapped long at the root ball anyway, (f) there is some outward flare in the trunk visible toward the bottom--only the tree is so thin it's hard to see, (g) there is a horizontal root coming out from the trunk just about at soil level, at most 1/4 inch below.

The worst case for planting a tree too low is when it is at the bottom of a rainwater trapping basin.  That is nothing like what I have here.

The planter said I should run soaker hose like I have on my other trees for two hours, then rewater every 4 days, or more if it is especially hot.  I did run the soaker hose for  one hour and 45 minutes.  It was putting out a lot of water and I believe it must have drawn more than 30 gallons of water, and I wondered if the planter was counting on that much water from a soaker hose.  I plan to use my soil tester tomorrow night and judge then if it needs more water then.  4 days sounds like too long a wait for a newly planted tree, but the soil tested should give me a good indication.

I used popsicle sticks to keep the soaker hose itself away from the trunk (wish I had thought of that with the other trees).

The planter hauled away two large buckets of stones and clay soil he had dug out.  He offered me one bucket of the soil but I declined.  The hard clay soil from around here is very hard and sticky and hard to work with and sometimes stinks.  I like to work with freely flowing sandy-loam type topsoils and use them in my yard work (I'd like to get about 10 more bags for this weekend to fill in cracks and depressions).

A friend checked out the tree at 7pm and said it looked wonderful, and not too low as I had feared.  It has been windy with possibility of thunderstorms.

The planter had not brought the palm tree I bought on Friday (and almost changed on Saturday, see previous post) because he didn't find out about it until he was already driving to my house.  He agreed to plant the palm tree on Saturday.  He was also concerned about the cables running through the easement where I want the palm tree and would like to see all the cable markings that are now being done.

Just after the planter arrived, a guy from Grande Cable arrived to mark the underground cables.   This is proof that the sprinkler company has called 811.  I showed him where the Grande cables comes out of the ground near my house.  He said he would tell his supervisor and send someone out to fix it.  I do want to have that fixed before covering it with sod and having the sprinklers installed.