Jobs Simply

Question about some Arbor Vitae I planted last year.?

I planted 40 Arbor Vitae last year & on a few of them the roots have grown up into the mulch. Is this alright? Is there some way I should correct it? Also 2 of them I either planted to deep or the mulch covered the top of the root ball completely. Can this be corrected. Thank you in advance for your help.

Public Comments

1. Why are the roots staying high? If the soil is compacted, waterlogged or actually even too dry, the roots are not going to want to stay there. So first you need to find out why. Do you have a soil probe? Actually anything that will help you get soil samples will help. If the soil is too compact, perhaps intense hold poking (scientific term, LOL) will get air into the soil so the roots will move down. If over watered..........change. If the soil holding water for some other reason, you may have to run a french drain near the planting and drain that water. Obviously if the soil is try, moisture just isn't getting down where it is needed. Mulch over the whole root ball has never been a problem for us......and we put down at least 4 inches of a coarse wood mulch. Planted too deeply......yipes, that's a hard one. Ultimately you should probably yank it and replace it. I doubt you'll get it up with an intact root ball and trying to lower the soil line around it might work but rarely did for us.