- It is a cold but beautiful spring morning here in Utah and I am with the one, the only, Will Pruitt, who is legitimately "The Lorax" of Utah.

- Oh, well, thank you.

- And he is a fantastic, most incredible arborist here in Utah.

And we are gonna learn all about how we're gonna plant these trees correctly today- - [Will] Absolutely.

- ... so that they can grow to their full maturity.

And it all comes down to something that Will will tell all of us about, which is the tree's flare.

- The flare.

- Tell me about the flare, Will.

- Well, the flare is where the tree meets the earth.

It's essentially the heart system of the tree.

It's how it pumps the water up and down the tree.

It's how it breaks ground and expands.

And most importantly, it's how the tree breathes.

Trees require oxygen.

A lot of people think that trees just need carbon.

Well, carbon's their food source but they breathe oxygen just like us.

First thing that we need to do is pick the right tree for the right spot.

- Okay, so tell me what tree we have today.

- Well, today we have a street smart maple and we're here in Thanksgiving Point, beautiful garden.

And so we don't have to worry too much about overhead power lines and underground utilities but you'll make sure to want to call 8-1-1 to have your utilities checked before you start digging.

And there's enough room for the tree to grow to its maturity size.

So you need proper spacing.

- Step number one.

What do we need to do?

- Well, the first thing that you need to do is not dig the hole.

- Oh, what?

- Yeah, most people, they like to dig this giant hole and then wheel a tree over and put the tree in the hole.

- I'm guilty.

I'm guilty.

- I'm guilty, too.

Half my career, I didn't even know how to plant a tree properly, as a certified arborist.

So don't be surprised.

Don't worry.

- Okay.

All right.

So I'm not feeling so bad, okay.

- So the first thing that we wanna do is actually start to adjust the root ball, find the flare of the tree and remove any girdling roots that might be present.

We want to do that first because we need to know the exact measurements of the hole that we need to dig.

- [Cynthia] Ooh, look at that.

- [Will] Look at that.

- [Cynthia] Look at that.

- [Will] The number one thing you don't wanna do is throw this in the ground and the tree, just like this.

All of these roots need to be teased and cut so that way they understand to grow outward.

So here is one of the best tools that you can use, is a sod knife.

- [Cynthia] Oh.

- [Will] The first place that we wanna start is the top.

- [Cynthia] Okay.

- [Will] We need to get rid of all this excess soil.

You can see the excess soil line- - [Cynthia] Yeah.

- [Will] ...that they put on at the nursery.

So if you have yourself a handy sod knife, you can just cut it straight off.

And so now, you can start to see the flare line.

Do you see these two nice dominant roots?

- [Cynthia] Yes.

- [Will] That is what we're trying to expose on the tree.

So the secondary roots is a reaction from the tree from being too deep inside of the pot.

So when you dig to find your flare, you might run into large roots like this that are secondary.

You can clearly see the flare line down almost four inches further than where those secondaries were.

They're right at the soil line of where the tree was in the pot.

That was the tree's reaction to try and make itself level.

So if you actually take a look right here, you can start to see girdling roots that have started to begin.

- [Cynthia] Ah.

Yeah.

- So a girdling root is a root that encircles around the trunk of the tree.

Because when that flare isn't at the proper level, it sends the root system into shock because the root system has to be at level and it comes too deep in the pot.

- [Cynthia] And we are still- - [Will] Still digging down.

- [Cynthia] ... digging down to get to that flare.

And you have this girdling root that will eventually kill the tree if we don't get it taken care of.

- [Will] Yep, that little, itty bitty root.

So now I have a pair of hand snips.

- [Cynthia] Okay.

- [Will] And right here, we're gonna go along and cut out some of these roots that just don't need to be there.

- [Cynthia] Okay.

- [Will] And so I'm just going along the side.

You make a nice incision in a couple of different areas, normally about four, skewering the side, trying to get any roots that have wrapped around the root ball severed.

So do you see how I'm just nicely pulling out these roots?

- [Cynthia] Look how beautiful they are.

- [Will] Look at how nice those are.

So we just kind of butterfly 'em out and tease 'em a little bit and just get 'em a little bit straighter, rather than going in a big circle.

So look at the size of this root ball compared to when we started.

- I am so happy.

Secretly, when I saw how big this tree was gonna be, and I'm like, "And we're gonna dig a hole this big?"

I mean, look at that.

- Yeah, look at the difference.

- That is significant.

- Right.

- I can dig a hole that big.

I don't wanna dig a hole this big.

- All right, seven inches too deep- - Seven inches- - ... in the pot.

- ... too deep in the pot.

- [Will] First thing we wanna do is just do a quick measurement of how big this root ball is, because we need to know how big the hole needs to be.

Because the bottom of this root ball has to sit on undisturbed soil.

That's the key ingredient.

So we are only going to dig a hole that's about 10 to 11 inches deep- - [Cynthia] I was not looking forward to a three foot hole.

- [Will] ... and about 20 inches wide to begin with.

Because the rule is, is that the hole needs to be twice the width of the root ball.

A lot of people hear, "Twice the size of the root ball," and they think, "Twice the size of the root ball."

- They wanna supersize it.

- That's right.

- No, it's actually just twice the size of that diameter of the root ball.

And this flare has to sit an inch above finished grade because the root ball, as time goes on, will settle.

So we'll go ahead and put that back inside of the pot for right now.

- Okay.

- And we'll dig our hole.

- All right, let's do it.

- So we'll go ahead and just rake everything out first.

Just remember, it was about 10 inches, 20 wide.

So start shallow and we can always go more deep.

Your shovel can cause what's called glazing.

Where it digs in, has the ability to glaze the soil, making it like a ceramic pot.

- Yes.

Okay.

- So if you don't go around the sides scoring the edges, getting rid of that glaze, it's just like planting it inside of a pot.

The tree can't break that soil.

The soil profile is too hard, so it can't break root.

- [Cynthia] Very good to know.

- [Will] So once we get to this stage, you need to do this by hand.

You can't be using the shovel because you can break far to too past the point where the hole's too deep now.

- Well, and like you said also, the glazing.

- Yes.

- You don't wanna do that.

- For newly planted trees, one of the number one problems I see is too much water.

Most trees are suffocating from the water.

They're too deep.

Well, the accumulation of being too deep and too much water creates the root rot, all the anaerobic problems to where the roots can't breathe.

Yep, all within 20 inches.

Okay, now, let's check our depth.

10, little lower than 10, about 10.

I just wanna take a little bit more off the side.

Our tree is prepared.

Our hole's prepared.

Now we get to put the tree in the hole.

(Will claps hands) - [Cynthia] Yay.

All right.

- Like that.

- That's that.

That's money.

So the first thing I do is I get my product.

There's all different types of products that you can use.

The one that I recommend is called CarbonPro.

- CarbonPro.

- CarbonPro.

It's a form of biochar.

So what I like to do is just take a handful, couple of handfuls.

Okay, we'll go ahead and put our tree in the hole.

So from here, we just kind of wanna step back, make sure that we have it, turn the direction that we like.

I kind of like it right there.

So you'll also notice that the top of our flare is about an inch above grade.

- [Cynthia] Yes.

- [Will] Now that's really important because the root ball will settle as time goes on.

So you want to make sure that your flare is about an inch above finished grade.

- So, interesting.

Okay.

- [Will] So we'll go ahead and we'll put down just another layer like this, just on top, a little bit on the sides.

And then from right here, we're just gonna pour a little bit of water right on the top of that root ball.

So we'll go ahead and just take your shovel and just go along the edges like this and just politely start to break everything up.

Try not to hit the root ball like I just did.

- Okay.

It's okay.

- The objective is to give it more air space in the soil.

And we can easily accomplish that just by tilling it right here in the spot.

Now, the nice thing is, is you do not have to go as deep as the root ball.

You just need to go about half.

I'm gonna go along the edge with this Pulaski and do a little bit of work like this.

- [Cynthia] So tell me about, like, look at this.

Am I tucking them in, or am I letting 'em go?

- [Will] So we actually do a couple of things with those.

We want to try and have 'em below it as much as we can.

And we don't want them in a straight beeline, meaning circling around that root ball.

So as long as they're just in the general location of pointing out, that's the important part.

You don't need to have them- - [Cynthia] Like strung out.

- [Will] ... fully extended.

No, they do not need to be fully extended.

They just need to be away from that root ball and hopefully, to continue to grow out.

Because the nice thing is, is that roots will fuse together.

They do not fuse to the trunk.

- Okay.

- That's why we have to focus on root pruning right there around that root flare, 'cause roots won't fuse together like they will out here.

And try to pack in the sides like this.

You don't wanna be overly tight, because if you're overly tight, it's not gonna breathe right.

Most of the time, you do not want to put new soil in this hole.

You use the native soil from that hole.

A lot of the times, people like to dig a big hole and then bring in nice compost and nice soil and then put it in the hole.

But now you've created a pot in the ground because the roots only wanna grow in good soil.

So they'll stay inside of that area and never actually chase water, never grow.

- [Cynthia] Gorgeous, Will.

- [Will] Yeah.

Look at that, that flare's a good inch above grade.

You'll notice that I'm tamping it down with my hands and not my feet.

I want to use my hands because if I compact it too hard there won't be oxygen in the soil for the roots to breathe.

- [Cynthia] Got it.

- [Will] Okay, so next, we're gonna apply the compost.

Grade A compost, this green check right here, means that they went through the 18-24 month process to actually build the enzymes, create the bacteria and the fungus is inside of this compost.

So I just take a whole bag.

Pour it right up there against that root flare.

- [Cynthia] Okay, so this goes on the root flare.

- [Will] No, no, no.

- [Cynthia] I was like, I'm like, wait a minute.

- [Will] Nope, absolutely not.

- [Cynthia] Wait a minute, no.

- [Will] Nothing goes along that root flare.

- [Cynthia] Okay, all right.

- [Will] That roof flare always remains.

- [Cynthia] I'm gonna keep this little hole.

- [Will] That's right.

So we pull it all back.

- [Cynthia] Okay.

All right.

- [Will] We're just gonna take our wood chips and apply wood chips on top.

So what we've done here, in this spot that this tree is growing, is we've simulated the forest floor.

Because the tree needs the optimal environment to grow.

Now we just want to apply a little bit more water.

The objective is not to get the water in the root ball.

Put the water outside of the root ball.

- [Cynthia] Make those roots look for it.

- [Will] that's right.

Make the roots- - [Cynthia] Get them sniffing.

- [Will] ... look for the water.

- This looks incredible.

And now we're doing the last final touches.

- Yes.

- So tell me what we're doing right now.

- Well, we are staking the tree.

It first needs to be known that not all trees need to be staked.

In fact, majority of trees do not need to be staked.

You always need a minimum of three posts.

- So not two T posts that are going like this?

- No, one of the worst feelings I ever get is driving down the road, seeing a newly tree planted with two posts on either side and a string just tight as can be on that tree, making it not able to move.

Because movement is more important for that tree than anything else.

- Interesting.

All right.

So, show me how we stake correctly, that we have our three posts.

- So our three posts are kind of triangled.

And then we also have good tie.

How you tie your tree and what material is used is very important.

One of the worst things you can have is an old garden hose or plastic that's cut, with a wire that goes inside of it and then strapped against the tree.

So what I prefer is actual tree tie.

You'll notice that they have a really nice link in it to where I can link things together and make the exact sizes I need.

- Mm.

Okay.

- It also has a really nice lip over the edge because what that lip does is it makes it so that way the tree can't cut into it.

So the next thing to know is when we actually tie it up, it's loose.

It's not meant to be tight.

It's not meant to hold the tree in place.

So with these stakes, our objective is to make it so that way if the tree gets past a certain point, the stake is now in place to take that stress.

That's the objective.

So here, we just went really loose around the trunk of the tree.

And here, we'll go ahead and be fairly loose as well.

- [Cynthia] Oh, wow, that's really loose.

- You'll see the tree can completely move around.

The tree needs to move.

Wind is what creates the strength of trees.

- So tell me what we're gonna do to help this tree stay protected while we don't know what our weather holds for us.

- Well, we're gonna put a blanket on it.

We're actually just gonna use some basic burlap just like this.

And we're gonna wrap the tree from the ground all the way up to the first lateral branches.

- Now, how long would you keep that burlap on?

- Past freeze.

So as soon as the freezes are over with- - Then remove it.

- ... you don't have to worry about it.

- What about in the fall?

Would you reburlap for the winter?

- Yes, I would.

So for the first two to four years, you do want to wrap that tree because the bark is just too thin and it can't protect itself in that manner.

- [Cynthia] Okay and remove it once- - [Will] Feeze is over, done.

- [Cynthia] ... all frost, freeze is gone.

- [Will] Yep, once all freeze is done.

- All right, Will, tree is wrapped.

- Yeah.

- It's all nice and warm.

It's all staked.

It's planted beautifully.

Its flare has been exposed.

- That's right, it can breathe.

- It's gonna be a happy tree.

Thanks again for watching here on "Modern Gardener."

Can't wait to see you next time.

(gentle music)