New To Planting Bare Root Plants?

The New User's Guide to Planting Bare Root Plants

When receiving your first order of bareroot plants, whether they are hedging, young trees, large trees, rose or soft fruit bushes, there are some simple extra requirements compared to pot grown plants.

• You must preserve moisture during storage
• The roots should be wet when they go in the ground

Preserving Moisture Around the Roots During Storage

Bare root plants need their roots to remain moist: not dry, and not sitting in water for too long.
It is fine to soak the roots underwater for hours, but not days.

When you receive your plants, you will naturally open the packaging and check your order.

If you are planting immediately or the next day

• Wrap your plants' roots back up, and store them out of the sun and wind.

If you need to store them for a few days

• Dunk the roots in a bucket of water, or spray with a hose 
• Wrap them back up, and store out of the sun and wind, ideally in a frost free, unheated place
• Do not store them with roots underwater water 

You can also 'heel them in' outside by burying the roots, leaving the plants lying down at an angle so they can't catch the wind and blow over; this is recommended if planting will be delayed more than a week. 

If your plants freeze outdoors, wait till they thaw to move them.
Frozen roots are brittle and should not be moved or planted.

Watering Bareroot Plants On Planting Day

1. Arrange a suitable bucket of water to carry around with you as you plant.
2. Keep the plants in their bags until needed.
3. Take them out one bundle at a time (unless you are planting a hedge mix, in which case take one each of several species.)
4. Put the bundle(s) into the bucket so the roots are in the water.
5. Cut the string/cable ties holding the bundles together.
6. Take one plant at a time from the bucket and plant it with sopping wet roots.

Planting Depth in the Soil

Whether you are slit planting smaller hedging & trees, or trench planting bigger plants (what's the difference between slit and trench planting?), correct planting depth is important: 

• Planting too deep may kill your plants.
• It is better to plant them slightly too high, and perhaps lose a couple of upper roots, than to plant deep and kill your tree! 

At the moment of planting, look for the root collar on each plant. You can determine where it is from both 

• A little bulge in the trunk just above the roots, and 
• A muddy "high water mark" left by the soil where the plant was growing previously, often accompanied by a change in the bark's colour and/or texture where it should be underground. 

With big bareroot trees and large planting holes, it's handy to have a straight stick or bamboo cane to check the planting level.

After planting and a good watering or heavy rain, the surrounding soil should be no higher than the root collar. 

Inspect your new plants after heavy rain to check that it is washing the soil down, and not moving soil onto the base of the trunks. 

Avoid The J Root

The J root means that the ends of the roots are not sitting down in the hole properly, causing the root-tips to point back up at the sky.
This mistake is easy to make with smaller bareroot plants using the slit planting method, which is standard for planting country hedges.

• You want the end of the roots to be at the bottom of the hole. 
• At no point should a root reverse back on itself.
• Laying the end of a long root flat along the bottom of the hole or slit is fine. 

It's best to trim off long, thin straggly roots that won't fit in a sensible hole.

Firming the plant in the ground

• Be firm when returning soil around the roots of bareroot plants.
• Roots must be in contact with the surrounding soil to grow, and that soil is what holds them in place against the wind!
• You don't want to leave air pockets.

Bareroot plants delivered in smaller sizes like 40/60cm or 60/80cm are often slit planted. 
It's important to close the slit well, don't be gentle about using your body weight or tool to firm it back together.

Bareroot plants delivered in larger sizes over 80cm tall are planted in a trench like formal hedging, or planted in a hole for a tree.

• It's often best to make a mound at the bottom of the planting hole to seat the base of the plant on: the 'octopus on a hill' method. 
  Drape flexible roots down as evenly as possible around the mound, or push stiff roots gently but firmly down onto it - this especially helps with heavy soil.
• With a hose or plenty of watering can refills, you can "puddle in" large plants with awkward or stiff roots using repeated applications of soil washed in with water and left to settle.

Aftercare

All new plants need to be watered while they establish, even if they are drought tolerant when they settled in.

1. Keep the weeds away. Weeds can establish right beside the trunk of your plants, so start from there and work outwards.
2. Water in dry weather. Rarely an issue in a typical British Spring, but dry weather may start early, so keep an eye on the forecast.
   Watering heavily every few days is better than watering a little every day.
   Check by digging down about 3 inches (7-8cm) and testing the soil there to see it's powdery and dry - if it's not, you don't need to water yet.