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By Gary L. Wade
University of Georgia
A healthy plant is a happy plant. They may not have emotions as
we do, but plants waste no time showing us they’re stressed. The
least we can do is avoid doing the things that stress them.
When it comes to planting in the landscape, you can get cook-book
recipes for success from your county University of Georgia
Extension Service agent.
But it’s just like baking a cake: If you leave out one or more
ingredients, the results will be disappointing.
I’ve seen virtually every violation of the planting rules, from
planting too deep to planting too shallow and leaving part of the
root ball exposed.
Preplant stress
Plants are often stressed when they’re held for later planting.
For instance, when trees lay in the sun on their sides on a
concrete or asphalt surface, they can get severe sunscald and
bark damage.
You can avoid this stress by covering the trunks of trees with
shade cloth or keeping them in the shade before planting.
Container plants are often allowed to dry out or aren’t watered
before planting. It’s very hard to rewet a dry root ball because
the container media is made mainly to drain well and the native
soil around the plant holds water better.
Root blues
Pot-bound plants often have long-term stress if the root mass
isn’t opened up. Disturbing the roots of pot-bound plants lets
water and nutrients penetrate more freely. It encourages roots to
grow outward, too.
Improper spacing is a leading cause of plant stress. If Shore
Junipers, for instance, grow 6 feet wide, why plant them 1 foot
apart? Horizontal junipers form layer upon layer of foliage when
they’re planted too closely. The result is a thick, dense mass of
green that’s a haven for spider mites and foliar diseases.
Routine plant shearing is high maintenance and stresses plants,
too. It constantly removes new growth and reduces the leaf area
for photosynthesis.
Plant fluster
Each time the plant funnels energy into new growth, that new
growth is removed. It becomes a landscape captive, like a
prisoner being punished with reduced rations.
A growing problem, and a source of severe plant stress in
Southeastern landscapes, is the misuse of herbicides.
Roundup, for instance, is widely used to spot-treat weeds around
plants that tend to form root suckers, such as crape myrtle,
ornamental cherries and ornamental crab apples. Sometimes people
accidentally get a little Roundup on a few suckers.
The next spring, new growth is severely distorted and compressed
at the bud, a condition called “bud blasting.” It may take two or
more growing seasons for the plant to grow out of the condition.
There’s a long list of man-made stresses commonly imposed on
ornamental plants. They include overwatering, overfertilizing,
using excess mulches, damaging plants with mowers and other
equipment, pruning improperly and burning debris over tree roots.
You can avoid these cultural stresses by planting and caring for
plants properly. Your plants will thank you with the unique
qualities healthy plants bring to your landscape.
(Gary Wade is an Extension Service horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)
