My neighbor uprooted his young tree and 3 berry bushes and gave them to me.
Problem is, I waited 4 days before replanting them, and I'm pretty sure the
tree could be dead. It was about 10 feet tall, so I planted it deeper than it
probably should've been. The root ball was about 8 inches underground. All of
the leaves are curled and very pale green. Even from daily watering, it
appears to show no recovery. What can one do with a dead tree?

The berry bushes have mostly brown leaves, some pale green ones. The berries
appear still a dark color, so they might be saveable still. Am I wrong?

"We lie. We cheat. We steal."
-- WWE wrestler, Eddie Guerrero

On 08 Jun 2003 01:15:44 GMT, weGuerr (Ablang) wrote:

My neighbor uprooted his young tree and 3 berry bushes and gave them to me.
Problem is, I waited 4 days before replanting them, and I'm pretty sure the
tree could be dead. It was about 10 feet tall, so I planted it deeper than it
probably should've been. The root ball was about 8 inches underground. All of
the leaves are curled and very pale green. Even from daily watering, it
appears to show no recovery. What can one do with a dead tree?

Ouch! never palnt a tree deep. The root crown needs to breathe and
dry out regularly. Many failed and weak transplants are the result of
too-deep plantings. Dig it up and plant it where you can see root
flares at the surface, then mulch heavily (4" deep) without burying
the base of the tree (see above). Cover a circle as big as you can
sacrifice to lawn or whatever may surround the tree. Keep the soil
watered regularly, but don't keep it soaking wet--then water fills
soil pores and no air can penetrate to the roots.

Or just cut it off at grade and start over. Which you choose depends
on how hard you're willing to work for what may be a doomed tree. It
also depends on what kind of tree it is. Find out if you can, and
look into the potential problems of the species in question.

As to what you can do with it, you could remove all the limbs and use
the trunk for limbo practice. A tree that size is not going to
constitute enough wood to do much of anything--see if your city refuse
collection has provisions for brush.

Good Luck,
Keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.
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