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Index : Trees
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- 8. Remove Wobbly Mesquite Trees - Top
- If you have a Mesquite tree that struggles to stand up on it's own, then it's time to give up on it and have it removed.
Mesquites are notorious for blowing over, even when they appear to be very sturdy. But often, young Mesquites will never develop a supporting root structure after planting. Chances are you or someone in your neighborhood has a Mesquite that's straining to stand up with the help of a strong stake and guy wire. If you were to remove the stake, the tree would fall over. Some Mesquites can stand on there own, but are wobbly! The trunks of these trees can easily be pushed back and forth in the ground. Not a good sign for a tree.
Many Mesquites fail to develop a supporting root system because they were pot-bound at some point in their production cycle. Pot-bound plants develop twisted and kinked roots. These damaged roots may not be seen at the time of planting because they are often hidden deep inside the root ball. The outer roots may look normal, but the main structural roots are deformed. After planting these deformed and misshapen roots will not straighten and fail to grow out to become what should be the anchoring roots. Some of the smaller, outer roots will grow but do not, and will not provide the support needed to hold the tree up.
Try as you may, it is impossible to get a wobbly tree to anchor in the ground. By putting up stronger stakes and wires, righting the tree when it falls over, giving it more fertilizer and water, you are just prolonging the inevitable. As the tree gets older and larger, eventually it will pull away from its stake and wire supports and fall on something or someone causing real damage. Also, the larger the tree grows, the more expensive it will be to have it removed!
The best thing to do with an unstable tree is to get rid of it and start over with a healthy specimen; a Mesquite or possibly another species less prone to kinking roots. But how do you know if the tree you're buying has twisted and kinked roots? One way is to gently pull the tree out of it's pot and look at the roots along the outer edge of the root ball. If there are large, finger-sized roots wrapping around the outside, the tree is pot-bound and should not be purchased. But even if there aren't, it doesn't mean that the roots inside the ball are normal and healthy. Of course you can't remove the soil to find out, but you can examine the top of the root ball. Scratch some of the soil back away from the base of the trunk with your fingers. If you find large wrapping roots under the soil surface, this indicates the core roots are kinked.
Visual inspection is no guarantee that no kinked and wrapped roots are present. If the tree is planted and it does not firmly anchor itself in the soil after one full growing season, then there is a problem. In some cases the tree may seem to be firm in the ground but just doesn't grow or grows very little. If a tree sits there for more than a year without putting on any new growth then it is likely the tree is permanently stunted and should be removed. There is no point in wasting time and effort on such a tree.
Another common reason why trees fail to grow after planting is that they have been planted too deep. When planting, dig the hole deep enough to place the top of the root ball flush with the surrounding soil surface. The width of the planting hole should be one or two feet wider than the root ball to provide space for new roots to grow. Fill around the tree roots with the soil you dug from the hole, taking care to remove any large rocks.
Fall is a good time of year to remove wobbly and weak trees because it's the best time to plant replacement trees here in the Desert Southwest.
"Fall Vegetable Gardening" will be the topic for this week's garden demonstrations. They will be presented on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Pima County Extension Center, 4210 N. Campbell Ave (central); and at 1 p.m. at the Wilmot Library (east), and on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Oro Valley Public Library (northwest).
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: September 14, 2003
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