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Worried about my bare roots
Tigrah
Posts: 125
Hello there people of GW! I recently received a 13 shrubs for £13 offer from T&M with sine great variety in there. The oak said it was a starter kit, but this will be more than enough for both my front and back garden!
The instructions in the packet day to plant bare roots immediately so to not key then dry out, but the weather where I am had been constant Friday and we also had snow. Was difficult to get out there! The questions I really wanted to ask were: how long will they last out of the ground? (I have them now stored in my cold little coal-shed that I have - no coal, just tools and a lawn mower) Should I leave it until the weather is better or struggle and get out there to plant them regardless?
Thanks,
Tigrah.
0
Posts
What's important is that the roots don't dry out. I'd get them in the ground asap, but if it's frozen that'll do them no good. Snow, however, implies the ground isn't hard so it would be fine to plant them. If you're not planting, then I'd leave them, roots wrapped in damp sacking, somewhere cold, but frost free. They'll be fine for a coupe of weeks like that. Failing that, plant them up individually in pots, leave them until the autumn.
H-C
At the minute they are in the plastic packaging that they came in. I don't have a hessian sack. I have a mist-sprayer-thing though, that I could perhaps spray the roots with? I would be worried that this would make it possible for them to rot, though.
Thanks again!
You could wrap them with wet newspaper to keep the roots damp. Don't worry about rot - the important thing is to keep the roots covered with something that will them permanently damp.
If you can't get them all planted straight away you can heel them in - essentially dig a shallow trench big enough to lay the shrubs in and cover the roots with soil. Then you can lift them and plant them in their permanent positions when the weather is suitable.
I'd do what Onopordum suggests - a bed of compost/soil somewhere so that the roots are buried and won't dry out. That's all you have to worry about, as the plants have been dug up from the ground while dormant to send to you. You would simply be replicating the conditions they've been in
They will survive a surprisingly long time like that, and you can get them planted or potted up, depending on your circumstances, once the ground or conditions are more suitable.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks guys! I don't think I have enough room to plant them I'm the ground in baby trench, not without digging up the lawn! I'll probably be using the wet newspaper technique until I can get some pots and compost to lob them in for now!
Many thanks!
Bought a large container today, going to plant them up in there. They may be a little cramped, but I'm hoping that shouldn't matter. They will be planted up asap! Likely one or two at a time!