Planting Trees In Square Holes Makes Them Grow Stronger And Faster

mrtom

Planting Trees In Square Holes Makes Them Grow Stronger And Faster:

There are a few reasons why planting the tree in a round hole is terrible for the tree’s roots and growth process.
At first, your tree will have great success as the little sapling rapidly grows new roots that spread out into the fertile and fluffy soil. But once the roots hit the poorer and compact ground at the perimeter of the hole, the roots won’t like it, and they will turn and snake along the edge of the border in search of better conditions.

When the roots do this, they create a spiraling action around the edge of the hole, developing a circular root system. You could imagine how this would look if you’ve seen a plant growing in a container. The roots will thicken and harden into a tight ring as they mature, creating a girdle that chokes the plant, and in some cases, resulting in severe stunting or death of your tree.

https://www.intelligentliving.co/pla...-square-holes/


Am interested in opinions on this article.

Gaspode

Its an opinion, I dont see any research data to provide any plausibility to that opinion.

looksee

I don't see any article! Its giving a 404. However in a very general way I can see some sense in it. On the other hand if you have poor soil - or even if you haven't, it is a good idea to create a mix of soil and compost in the hole so that the roots are gradually going into something similar to what they have been in then gradually into the surrounding soil. If you have very poor soil then it is a waste of an often expensive tree to put it straight into a simple hole with no provision for the young roots trying to adapt to the new suroundings, whether it is round or square.

macraignil

mrtom wrote: »

Planting Trees In Square Holes Makes Them Grow Stronger And Faster:

There are a few reasons why planting the tree in a round hole is terrible for the tree’s roots and growth process.
At first, your tree will have great success as the little sapling rapidly grows new roots that spread out into the fertile and fluffy soil. But once the roots hit the poorer and compact ground at the perimeter of the hole, the roots won’t like it, and they will turn and snake along the edge of the border in search of better conditions.

When the roots do this, they create a spiraling action around the edge of the hole, developing a circular root system. You could imagine how this would look if you’ve seen a plant growing in a container. The roots will thicken and harden into a tight ring as they mature, creating a girdle that chokes the plant, and in some cases, resulting in severe stunting or death of your tree.

https://www.intelligentliving.co/pla...-square-holes/


Am interested in opinions on this article.

Your link leads to a page that gives an error message so I can't read your article. I don't understand how normal soil can be as solid as a plant pot for plant roots so you asking us to imagine the roots growing in a tight ring like they do when left in a pot for too long does not sound like a very reasonable comparison. The description of a "girdle that chokes the plant...." also sounds just like scaremongering.



I have found advice that digging a planting hole for a tree and filling it with compost does have an effect in slowing the spread of the roots further into the soil which they need to do faster when they can't get all they need from what's in the planting hole. Never heard of the shape of the planting hole being that relevant and it's more the content of the planting hole being made too nutrient rich can lead to some reduction in root spread when the tree is getting established from what I heard.


My own planting involves as little soil disturbance as possible and compacting the soil back down on top of the roots and the shape is only what is required to fit the roots. This for bare root saplings is more likely to be a slit rather than a square or circle shape and has worked for me for hundreds of plants so not likely to change to digging out a square which would disturb more soil and not improve anything from the way I understand soil and root development. Surely the area will have earth worms and other soil life that will allow passages for the roots to develop regardless of the shape of the planting hole.

Beeping Kitchen Appliances

Cube, not square.

Lumen

If square cross section is better than round, polylobular would be better still.

Like a Torx head, for instance.

mrtom

Sorry about the dead link, however the author does suggest the following:

"The roots won’t develop a circular root system because, as systematic planting trials have shown, the roots are not good at growing around corners. When the roots hit the 90-degree angle of a square hole, rather than snaking around to create a spiral, they spread out of the planting hole to colonize the surrounding native soil".

A novel perception that deserves consideration ?
thank you for your time

mrtom

Gaspode wrote: »

Its an opinion, I dont see any research data to provide any plausibility to that opinion.

So true:

There are a lot of factors that need to be considered here; temperature, time exposed to light, moisture, earth/fertiliser used, size of potting etc. In order to somewhat account for the variation that will be introduced even if all those factors are controlled, you will need to repeat the experiment and see if any trends emerge.

tampopo

Gaspode wrote: »

Its an opinion, I dont see any research data to provide any plausibility to that opinion.

Alan Titchmarsh recommended this practice years ago. Presumably he had plenty of hands on experience.
I thought it was common knowledge at this stage

loco-colo

https://www.intelligentliving.co/planting-trees-in-square-holes/

pwurple

I think if your soil is light and sandy with plenty of loam, it makes no difference whatsoever.

However, maybe if you have heavy clay, where plants struggle to get established and you are planting something that was previously potbound with coiled roots, then maybe it could help solve that problem.
A good soak before planting, tease out roots, root prune a little. Then dig the planting hole (square) at least twice as big as you need it to be and backfill with the soil you dug out & a light mix of compost/leafmould/soil conditioner.

loco-colo

I am going to try it with potatoes this year.

Square spuds would be deadly handy for making chips.