By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia

By now you should see trees for sale in nurseries and garden
centers. If you ordered any by mail, you should be getting them
soon.

So when you get your trees, what do you do with them?

Yeah, I know — you plant them. But how? There’s more to planting
a tree than digging a pit and flinging in a tree. The hole you
dig can be the difference between the life and death of the tree.

So what’s a perfect hole?

Kim Coder, an urban forester with the University of Georgia
Extension Service, says it has three important features: a
compacted mound of soil in the bottom, steeply slanted sides, and
a wide area.

The bottom mound

The mound of soil in the bottom is so the tree’s root ball can
rest on it. You can compact it with your foot since the roots are
going to grow outward, not downward. This encourages the roots to
spread and keeps the tree from settling too deep in the hole.

Position a tree to rest at the same or a slightly higher level in
the soil than it did in the nursery. You can tell where the old
soil level was by looking at the stem base.

If you want to kill the tree, plant it too deep or let it settle
into a deep hole.

The steeply slanted sides are important, too. The sides should
never be straight up and down. Always slant them at least 45
degrees from the soil surface.

Slanted sides

Slanted hole sides allow and encourage roots to spread out and
grow into the native soil. This helps keep the tree from becoming
pot-bound in the hole.

And finally, the width of the hole is a big key. Tree-planting
holes should be three times wider than the root ball of the tree
you’re planting. This allows the tree to get off to a fast start.

There’s a good way to describe proper tree planting: dig a
saucer, not a hole.

Proper tree-planting holes are easier to dig, too. So, if you
want to work harder so you can kill your tree faster, plant them
in a deep, narrow, straight-sided hole.

If you’d rather make it easier on yourself and your tree, plant
your trees correctly.