Don't Bury That Tree!

Trees need to be planted in the ground, but planting too deep is a sure way to kill a tree and throw away the money invested on purchasing and planting it.

In southeast Michigan, spring is the prime season for tree planting, and is when homeowners consider doing their major landscaping work for the season. In the case of transplanting a tree, proper planting is absolutely critical. No amount of proper watering, pruning, and fertilizing can save a tree where the root ball has been planted too deep.

Nursery trees are available as:

1. Bare-Root: The tree is sold with the roots packed in a medium that retains moisture to protect the roots, and then is covered in paper or plastic. Before planting, the covering paper or plastic must be removed, and the roots must then be moistened. When the tree is placed in the planting hole spread the roots out evenly.
2. Balled and Burlapped (B & B): The tree is moved with a ball of soil to protect the root system. B & B trees will be heavy so professional arborists with the proper equipment should be hired for planting of larger trees. Smaller trees should be carried with a hand under the root ball. Lifting by the stem or tree branches can lead to serious root damage. To plant, set the root ball in the hole, adjust the position of the tree as necessary, then remove any twine and nails. Remove the burlap from the upper third of the root ball. Some soil may need to be removed from the top of the root ball to find the root flare at the base of the tree trunk.
3. Container: Trees grown in a pot have the advantage of root systems that are relatively undisturbed at the time of planting. The consumer should beware of “pot-bound” container trees, which have large amounts of roots completely circling the inside of the pot. Since roots should extend outward from the tree, these trees will have difficulty becoming established after planting as the thick ring of circling roots will hinder the outward spread of the root system. Immediately prior to planting container trees, remove the container and then prune the roots by up to 50 percent. This may seem like a lot, but still leaves sufficient root system for healthy plant establishment. By comparison, B & B trees only require a root pruning of about 10 percent or less.

Tree Planting Guidelines:

• To determine the size of the planting hole you need to dig measure the height and diameter of the root ball or root spread.
• Make the hole 1 to 3 inches shallower than the root ball or root depth. The diameter of the hole should be wider than the root ball or root spread.
• Place the tree on solid, undisturbed ground in the center of the planting hole. The tree should be planted so that the root flare is visible and above ground level.
• Fill the hole with the same soil that was dug out to make the hole. Use water to pack or settle the soil around the root ball.
• 2 to 4 inches of mulch should be placed around the tree to conserve soil moisture. Do not apply mulch against the trunk of the tree.
• After planting, prune the tree to remove any branches that may be broken, damaged, diseased or dead.
• Stake and/or protect the trunk of the tree as necessary to guard against possible wind damage or lawn mower injury. Remove the support wires and staking when no longer necessary or when the wires could damage or kill the tree by girdling.
• Prune the tree to promote a good branch structure once the tree has become established in its new location - usually 1 to 3 years after planting.  Never remove more than a quarter of total foliage in a single year.
• Tree fertilizing isn’t necessary at the time of planting, but it is OK to apply root stimulants.

The best advice for protecting your investment in a new tree and to insure a safe and healthy transplanting is to hire a tree care professional with the proper equipment, experience, and expertise to safely plant trees. Before hiring a company for this work, require proof of liability insurance.

Homeowners in Oakland, Genesee, Macomb, and Lapeer County, Michigan who are looking for advice and recommendations on purchasing and transplanting new trees should consult a professional arborist. For your own sake, make sure that the company you choose for landscaping or to do any work on your trees is insured, certified, and trained.

SHOULD WINTER DAMAGED EVERGREENS BE PRUNED NOW?

No doubt you have been noticing brown, dead patches in your evergreens this spring. This is the plant’s response to the extremely harsh winter. Your first impulse may be to prune out the damaged foliage and dead twigs. This might seem to make perfect sense, but wait!

While the dead needles and leaves will not green up and they will drop off later in the season, there are buds on the twigs that might produce new foliage and twigs. If pruned too early in spring these buds will be removed, greatly affecting the plants’ recovery and appearance.

Because of the very cold and windy winter, some of the buds may have been killed as well. However, we won’t know what parts of the plants have survived until mid-late May.

So, put down the pruners and be patient. Let’s see what will grow on your damaged evergreens and then remove just the dead portions of your damaged tree or shrub.

 Evergreen tree showing signs of winter burn.

Boxwood shrub leaves turned yellow above the snow line from winter burn.

GYPSY MOTHS IN LAPEER, MI

Occasional flare-ups of gypsy moth populations are not uncommon around Lapeer due to the number of trees and the species of trees found in the area. We do occasionally receive calls from homeowners that think they have gypsy moth, but it turns out to be less damaging caterpillars – usually eastern tent caterpillars or forest tent caterpillars.

Gypsy moth caterpillars have five rows of blue dots followed by six rows of red dots along its back, front to rear. The eastern tent caterpillar has a white stripe running the length of its back. The forest tent caterpillar has a series of “keyhole” shaped, yellowish dots running the length of its back. Each of these different caterpillar species get rather large and are hairy.

Here’s what to do to determine if you actually have gypsy moth caterpillars and what actions you can take if it turns out you do have gypsy moth caterpillars on your trees.

Do you know what kind of trees you have on your property?

It’s less likely you have gypsy moth caterpillars on your trees if you don’t have any trees they like to eat. Gypsy moth prefers to feed on oak, aspen (poplar), birch, crabapple and willow trees. We have found them feeding on other tree species (even spruce trees), but this is only when their population is at its peak.

Where can you find gypsy moth egg masses?

Look on the underside of tree branches, on tree trunks, under house overhangs, or the underside of bird baths. Almost any object in your yard could have gypsy moth eggs masses on it. Gypsy moth eggs masses are gold, brown, or tan colored, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, and oval shaped. The egg masses are flattened against whatever they are laid on and are covered with fine hairs.

What can be done to control gypsy moth caterpillars?

In Lapeer, gypsy moth caterpillars start hatching in mid-May with peak feeding injury occurring in mid to late June. The safest treatment for gypsy moth caterpillars is to spray infested trees with Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t) when the caterpillars are small. However, B.t. is not effective for control of gypsy moth when the caterpillars are greater than one half inch long.

Controlling larger gypsy moth caterpillars can be done with any one of several registered traditional insecticides labeled for control of gypsy moths. Most insecticides labeled for control of gypsy moth will work both on contact and leave a residual on the foliage that will control caterpillars that show up after the tree spraying is done.

What if defoliation from gypsy moth caterpillars has already occurred?

Gypsy moth caterpillars are heavy feeders and can consume 100% of the foliage on a tree. A couple years of heavy defoliation can kill even a mature tree in your landscape. All trees infested with gypsy moth caterpillars should be given adequate water and fertilizer to help them recover. Any amount of defoliation from gypsy moth caterpillars may cause some branch dieback, so pruning may also be necessary.

EASTERN TENT CATERPILLARS

The silken nests of eastern tent caterpillars will be starting to appear in the Shelby Township area soon. The eastern tent caterpillar is partial to cherry, apple, and crabapple trees, but they’re not opposed to infesting your peach, plum and pear trees, as well.

Eastern Tent Caterpillar Damage

The eastern tent caterpillar can potentially defoliate a small to mid size tree.

Identification

The silk nest is a dead giveaway that you have eastern tent caterpillars in your tree. As soon as the young caterpillars hatch from the egg mass they will look for the nearest suitable crotch in the tree (branch or main stem) and begin construction of a nest. The eastern tent caterpillar nest is built in layers. With each succeeding layer the nest grows in size. Depending upon the number of individuals in the colony, a mature eastern tent caterpillar nest may range in size from a baseball to a softball. The nest is home base for the colony. They move in and out of the nest several times throughout the course of a day.

Homeowners in Shelby Twp. occasionally confuse the eastern tent caterpillar with the gypsy moth caterpillar. Both grow to be big hairy caterpillars and both occur in the spring. However, in Shelby Twp. the eastern tent caterpillar hatches nearly a month before the gypsy moth. The eastern tent caterpillar also looks different from the gypsy moth. Where the gypsy moth has a series of blue dots followed by red dots on its back, the eastern tent caterpillar has a white stripe down the middle of its back.

The eastern tent caterpillar does not appear in your tree out of the blue. The egg mass was probably there since the previous summer (July). Once the leaves fall, the egg mass is easier to spot. It looks like a dark swelling of a twig or small branch. The eggs are covered with an excreted fluid that hardens and takes on the appearance of a shiny dark varnish. The caterpillars hatch early in the spring because the embryo is completely developed by first frost. An egg mass will contain 150 to 350 eggs.

There are several means available to control eastern tent caterpillar.

Cultural Control

As soon as the leaves fall, check susceptible tree species in your landscape. Pay special attention to any trees that had a nest the previous spring. The egg masses can be removed by hand. This control method is particularly effective on your smaller trees, which can be completely examined. You can either scrape off the egg masses or clip off the branch if it’s not going to affect the appearance of the tree.

If you see tents being formed in the spring you can remove the actual nest. Wind up the nest and caterpillars on a stick and dispose of them in your garbage.

Biological Control

There are several natural enemies that attack and thrive on eastern tent caterpillars in Shelby Township. In particular, the northern oriole thinks it has died and gone to heaven when they find a tree with eastern tent caterpillars. Also attacking eastern tent caterpillars is a parasitic fly which looks like an overgrown house fly. The fly maggot burrows into the caterpillar, but doesn’t finish it off until it pupates. There are also other birds, beetles and wasps that dine on this caterpillar.

Chemical Control

Tree spraying options include both organic and traditional insecticides. If the caterpillars are less than 1/2 inch in length a Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t) spray can be applied. For larger caterpillars, there are several insecticides labeled for control of eastern tent caterpillars.