GARDENING: fibrous roots hold it all together

LAST week I covered moving established shrubs and small trees, writes TOM ATTWOOD. This week I’d like to deal with how best to look after your ‘transplants.’ The first area to think about are the roots. No matter how hard you try it is inevitable that several main roots will be damaged or severed during the move. The largest roots are often for anchoring the plant in place and less to do with moisture and nutrient absorption. That is the role of the fibrous roots that permeate throughout the root ball and what in fact holds all that soil together. These are most important and losing as few of these as possible is essential. If you do have to sacrifice significant amounts of root you need to counter the loss by removing stems and branches above ground. This reduces the amount of water demand placed on the plant until its roots are able to re-establish themselves. In the same way that when you take a softwood cutting you’re often advised to cut down the size of the leaf to reduce water loss, it’s the same principal in this instance. If your plant has been moved this winter very little watering should be required unless it is a large evergreen and the soil conditions are unusually dry (unlikely for anyone reading this who lives in the north west). The main time when watering may be necessary (particularly with large plants) is in spring when the demands on the roots will be at their greatest. Warm, sunny days in May with a good breeze will cause lots of water to be lost through the leaves so it’s worth giving a little bit often to your plant(s). If in doubt follow your instincts, work on cans of water as your measure. A full can of water will go a long way and if applied every day or so the benefits will be enormous. Feeding with fertilizer should be minimal as you can do more harm than good so be frugal at least for the first season.