Young trees have to fight for their lives when they’re planted in turf. Dr. Bruce Fraedrich reminded me of this at a recent Bartlett client training seminar. It also brought memories of the time I worked with a municipal parks department. We maintained a park surrounded by forest. The ball diamonds were used mainly on weekends. It was normal to run into black bears at this park.
There were several young trees standing in lawn areas. On of my co-workers started line trimming and seconds later I could hear his line hitting the skinny stems. It was horrific maintenance work! It was no wonder many of the park trees were dead, declining or struggling.
Four key issues
Four issues affect tree health in this public park.
- mechanical damage where machines collide with trees
- tree vs. turf competition
- tree root zone compaction
- vandalism
Turf vs. tree
Let’s consider number two. Young trees struggle when they’re parked in turf. This is especially true with tap-rooted trees which must compete for water and nutrients with fibrous-rooted turf grasses. According to Dr. Bruce Fraedrich, the tree almost always loses.
Steven Tjosvold, writing in Fine Gardening magazine (April 2017, page 54), also points out that a carpet of petunias planted at the base of a tree has the same effect as fibrous-rooted turf grasses. The tree is forced to compete for precious resources.
Corrections
Tjosvold recommends keeping a 12 inch buffer between tree trunks and dense, fibrous-rooted plants. Or any plants. That’s if you must plant trees in turf at all. And if you do, put a tree circle around the tree. This serves two purposes. It channels water and nutrients to the root zone and it eliminates tree trunk collisions with machines. Hopefully it also gets big mowers to stay away from the critical tree root zone, thus avoiding deadly soil compaction. Once the soil is compacted, roots struggle to obtain water.
Dr. Fraedrich also presented another interesting idea: enlarging and connecting tree circles. For example, imagine you have three tree circles clumped together. Now, enlarge each circle so that it connects all three into one. It’s a brilliant idea! The trees can use the area to channel water and nutrients to their root zones and lawn equipment can stay away.
Conclusion
In conclusion, remember that young trees planted in turf areas struggle in a fight with turf grasses for water and nutrients. This is especially true with tap-rooted trees. It’s not a fair fight. Young trees usually lose.
Try building tree circles and connect them, if you can.
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You need approval. Everything is copyrighted. Which picture do you want to use? Just let me know. If you give me credit you can use one picture.
Great article.
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