Sometimes , plants survive in spite of our handle them badly . Like this Rhododendron .
I was expect recently to do what I could to save a roughly 20 - yr - oldRhododendron , which had mature to about 5 feet . It remain firm atop a site where a heating oil computer storage tank had to be removed , so the Rhododendron had to come out before the backhoe arrived . I detest to see beautiful , ripe bush destroyed , so I gladly exact on this project .
The challenges of removing a Rhododendron planted 20 years ago
With the helper of two other men , we dug around the bush with shovels to loosen the stem . In every previous rehab of rhododendrons and azaleas this sizing , I ’ve had no problems simply digging them out and graft them elsewhere . Unlike deep - rootingshrubs such as yews , rhododendron ’ and azaleas ’ roots mostly run comparatively close to the surface , ordinarily within the top 12 inches of ground . They also have a erect root structure from the center of the shrub which engross the same astuteness or deep , but which is fairly light to free .
Poor-quality clay soil can act like concrete
Within the first three in of poke , we discovered that the rhododendron was surrounded by what appeared to be construction backfill – hard clay mixed with mickle of pocket-sized stones and rocks . And when I say hard , I intend concrete - same . The soil was bundle like none I ’d ever seen and was heavy with shovelful . We worked at it for 2 hours , but the shrubs would n’t move and we made niggling progress .
Granted , our clay grunge here in Pennsylvania can place a challenge whenplanting or transplanting trees or bush . Once you get down below the top six or eight inch of soil , you ’ll sometimes run across flushed clay as concentrated and dumb as brick .
High-quality clay soil feeds a plant for many years
The matter about the Great Compromiser soil is that it ’s very prolific . It can give plants for many years if the flora ’ roots can penetrate it . That ’s why it ’s imperative thatorganic matter like compostand sometimespeat mossis mixed regularly into garden beds build up on Henry Clay . The constitutive material separates the Henry Clay corpuscle , make fissures that root and body of water can penetrate . And of row , compost replace nutrient the plant has used .
What happens when a plant is planted incorrectly
When a shrub is dropped into a hollow prod in dense clay , and the same Lucius Clay is backfilled into the cakehole , the roots may clamber to rule water and nutrient after a few season . If the mud is very dense , the roots may only develop in a circular manner within the corpse bowl they were planted in because it ’s unimaginable for them to move beyond it .
Adding to the problem is when the plant life is fertilise heavily season after season . This restricts solution development because the plant does n’t postulate to find nutrient beyond the gob it ’s constitute in . Hence , the roots never acquire beyond the hole , and just keep wrapping around themselves and grow within the clay trough .
Once the plant eat up the nutrition within the beleaguer stiff and fertilizing agenda alteration or are eliminated , the plant life digest enormous strain and may die . That ’s why whenplanting trees , arborvitae , rhododendrons , or any perennial , constitutional amendmentsand grunge conditioning are the difference between a works just surviving or prosperous .
But back to the task at handwriting .
A backhoe succeeded where we failed.
Eventually , we gave up trying to dig out the rhododendron by bridge player – if 3 grown hands ca n’t dig out out 1 flora , it probably ca n’t be done without machinery . Fortunately , a skilled backhoe operator get rid of both industrial plant intact and with a lower limit of damage .
When I looked at the plenty of corpse the backhoe hollow , I could n’t pick out a unmarried louse , beetle , or any insect whatsoever – not one . And that is a terrible sign . It tells me that the soil is almost lifeless or at leastthe soil intellectual nourishment webwas completely inactive . This was probably the issue of the dense corpse soil being treat with chemicals for years and zero soil amendment , which also explained thesoil compaction .
The base of the rhododendron were case in a cement - like egg of clay . I went to work on the clay around the roots with a handheld cultivator and freed up all the root country possible . What I found was startling .
Freeing the rhododendron roots from the clay
The ascendant of the rhododendron had barely infiltrate vertically . The flora conform to its condition by creating a thick carpet of fine roots across the top 3 - 4 inch of soil . The roots literally overlapped themselves – when they accomplish a few inches past the bush ’s drip line , they started back in the direction they come up from , growing over the top of the other roots . This added to the industrial plant ’s problems , as the overlapping base created a snarl so dense that lilliputian water supply or anything else could penetrate it . Undoubtedly , this rhododendron was surviving completely on the uppermost aerofoil roots .
After I freed as much solution mess as potential , we dug new hole , and the shrubs were planted back in their original positions . Compost was added to the soil surface around the root arena and the damaged parts of the plant were then cut out . So far , the shrub are doing fine and will hopefully survive many more years with right attention .
