Should You Remove Burlap From Balled Trees?
Burlap is a coarse jute fabric---a biodegradable product---used to package and protect bare root trees and shrubs. The main concern with planting balled and burlapped plants is maintaining the structure and integrity of the root ball, as well as keeping it cool and moist. Does this Spark an idea?
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Features
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Burlap is porous, lightweight and strong, making it a good medium to wrap plant root balls as it allows aeration and watering of roots. While it is biodegradable, K. Thomas Lawson, a certified arborist from Charlottesville, Virginia, comments that it does not quickly decompose. Burlap around root balls still leads to girdling roots.
Considerations
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture urges that any string or wire holding burlap around a plant's root ball is removed before planting. Lawson strongly urges to remove as much burlap as physically possible by either carefully unwrapping it while retaining the integrity of the root ball. Or, if the root ball is too large and heavy, place it in the planting hole and cut away as much burlap as possible.
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Warning
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If you do choose to keep some loose pieces of burlap around the root ball when planting, make sure no burlap is exposed to air. Burlap acts like a wick. Through capillary action, exposed burlap causes uneven and undesired drying of the root ball wherever burlap remnants remain underground in the planting hole.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit sunny burlap background image by joanna wnuk from Fotolia.com
