When you go to a plant nursery or garden center, there are two main ways in which you’ll find trees for sale. The first is in a plastic container (available in a variety of sizes). The second method is where the root ball is wrapped in burlap and often with a wire basket surrounding it to hold everything in place.
In this tip, we are going to recommend you to remove the metal cage and burlap wrap around the tree roots before planting it in your garden. While some nurseries will tell you that it isn’t necessary, we believe it will help improve the long term health of the trees. The reason is that the burlap and wire baskets can and do interfere with root growth, causing issues such as girdling. While some species (such as Populus and Salix have very tenacious roots that can grow through almost anything, other varieties will have a much harder time growing through both the burlap and wire cage surrounding the roots.
To remove the burlap and wire cage, we recommended the following procedure. After digging your hole and ensuring the tree is at the proper depth (with the root flare about the soil line), lower the tree root ball into the hole. Cut off and remove the burlap and wire cage and then back fill the hole to provide good soil contact and support the tree. Continue cutting and removing the burlap and cage until it is removed and the hole has been filled.
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