Friday, September 25, 2009

Live Oak Planting

This week, Simmons Oak Farms added a Live Oak, Quercus virginiana, to the Cameron County Master Gardener Arboretum.   The planting bed is surrounded by sidewalk that leads up to the outdoor classroom.   What a pleasant stroll it will be up that sidewalk when it's shaded by oak branches.


We have a new tool that removes the RootMaker bag from the rootball.   Attached to a power drill, it rips the bag right off, disturbing the roots much less than removing it by hand.    This is the first time that we ever used a Treegator.    This tree has a 5" caliper trunk so we zipped two together.  They each will hold 20 gallons of water.   The "gator" then emits the water over the  next 8 hours - slowly soaking the rootball - RIGHT where it's needed.    According to the instructions, a once weekly irrigation is all you need to get your shade tree well established.

We did purchase a box of these Treegators and will have them available for customers who might need one or two.  One of the best things is that it is re-usable (and guaranteed for two years).


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