Hello, my name is Katie Rushworth and today I am going to show you how to stake different
trees depending on the situation that you want to plant them.
Now, this bed here is on a slope so there is definitely a certain way in which to stake
the tree correctly, but first we need to plant it.
When planting any tree you want a hole which is much bigger than the pot.
This is quite delightful soil to dig.
Now some people say when planting a tree you should plant in a square hole, some people
say it should be round, today I am going with round.
But you want the soil around the roots of the new tree to be really friable and nicely
broken up so the roots can anchor themselves as soon as possible, The sooner your tree
can become established and happy in it's new home the sooner you will reap the rewards
of all the beautiful fruit this should give us.
This is a pear tree.
I am going to pop a bit of compost into the bottom of the hole, if you have homemade compost
that would be wonderful.
I am just going to gently fork that into the bottom of the hole.
Now for our tree.
Now you just gently grab the trunk of the tree and pop the pot off.
Now when you are buying trees it is a really good tip if you look at the bottom of the
pot and you can see it's white roots through the hole you know that it is well rooted,
and that is what you want, a really good set of roots on the tree.
And we are going to just tease them out.
Now you might think that this is damaging the tree, but actually a little bit of vigorous
teasing means that the roots will, it will urge them to regrow sending out new ones.
And then I am going to backfill all around the tree breaking up any large clumps of soil
because we don't want those roots to be hitting them and not being able to get through.
OK.
And then be really firm with the heel of your boot because we don't want any air pockets
around the roots.
OK, now it is time for our stake.
Now with planting on a slope you want your stake to be on a 45 degree angle and place
leaning in to the prevailing wind, and that means that when the wind blows it the tree
will blow away form the stake and that is what we want because if the two blow together
that causes friction and you get cuts and wounds on the tree trunk because the two rub
together.
And we really don't want that to happen because that is where pests and diseases get in.
So I know the wind comes this way so I am going to put my stake in at this angle with
the hope that when the wind blows the both of them they both blow away form each other.
You want to place your stake just out from the rootball of the tree, and hopefully given
that the soil is nice we want at least two thirds of this tree stake buried.
I think that will do.
And then I have a tree tie.
Now it is better to get a heavy duty one of these and again it is all about stopping the
tree from rubbing the stake.
So we are going to tie it in a figure of eight.
So first around the stake and then around the tree.
And as you can see here we have got this buffer between the two, giving them some extra protection
like a tree guard is often a good idea if you live rurally and you have any problem
with deer or rabbits.
Bit I think here this one is going to be fine.
I am going to water it in and hopefully within the year we should have some delicious pears.
Now in early spring, it is possible to buy hedges and trees what we call 'bare rooted'
which means that they have no soil and they are in no container when you get them.
And because the plant is dormant in it's dormant season it is a really good time of year to
plant them because it means as it is waking from it's slumber from the winter months it
is in it's new position and will start growing away really quickly.
And the staking for a bare rooted plant is different again, now before I plant my tree
I am going to put my stake in because with a bare rooted tree you need a vertical stake.
OK.
Right, now as with any tree it is really important that this faces the prevailing wind.
That could do with being a little bit higher, I can always cut it down.
And then we are going to backfill with all our newly dug soil.
Now I haven't put any compost in the bottom of this hole but what I will do is mulch around
the bottom of the tree and then the worms will come up and take all those nutrients
from the compost down to the roots of the tree.
Now I am going to firm that in.
When you plant any young tree it is so important to water it really well in those first few
weeks.
OK, now for my tree tie.
And we are going to do the trusted figure of eight again to stop any rubbing happening
between the tree trunk and the stake it's self.
And as the tree matures and the girth of the trunk get's thicker it is really important
to check the tree tie because if the girth of the tree outgrows the tree tie then eventually
the tree tie will start cutting in to the bark of the tree and again we really don't
want that because that is where disease can enter and kill the tree.
And then you could always if your tree tie is a little big for now just screw it in to
the stake and then it is going to hold up exactly where you want it.
Now staking trees is vital to their survival when the are young plants.
And that is because what you are trying to do is prevent the roots from being disturbed.
For a tree to thrive it really has to get it's roots in to the ground an anchor itself
in to position in order to be able to give you the display that you want to create.
Now this tree has definitely suffered a little bit with the prevailing wind that comes over
this hedge, and you can see its growth is really stunted all the way up the stem.
So it didn't have any tree stakes in but we are going to make sure that it does form now
on and hopefully it should mean that its roots are not disturbed as much by all this rocking.
As you can see it is really flexible all the way up there, and that should mean it should
be able to recover and get itself nice and anchored into the soil.
OK, now you will notice with a more established tree that I am going to put a stake either
side and then create a bit of an H shape brace if you like using the tree ties.
You want to make sure that the stakes are in at least a good six inches if not more
from the trunk of the tree, just so you are not disturbing too much of that root ball.
And then the other one is going to go on the other side.
Now this is a really quick and easy job to do with trees.
Whether you are planting a bare rooted one, a tree on a slope, a mature tree like this
that needs a bit of TLC just giving that little bit of extra support will hopefully mean that
they will perform better as plants for you in your garden.
And there we have it that is braced nicely so hopefully that should recover.
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