Released: February 15, 2002

Also see: Early Spring, 2002 Yard 'n Garden news package

Yard ’n Garden News Briefs

In this package:
1) Sale Transplants a Gamble
2) Hardy Plants Can Freeze, Too
3) Easiest Landscape Chore? Feeding Trees!
4) To Mulch or Not to Mulch Trees

Sale Transplants a Gamble

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Should careful Kansans wait until late spring, knowing they can buy new landscape plants on sale then?

"No!" is the quick reply of Charles Barden, ornamental plant specialist at Kansas State University. He provides three reasons:

1. The healthiest, best-suited trees and shrubs for an area nearly always sell out first.

2. Transplants that go into the landscape in April tend to have the best odds for adjusting well.

3. Ornamentals that spend a lot of time on display have the highest odds for becoming root-bound and/or damaged. With untrained store personnel, they also may suffer from slow starvation or dehydration.

"And if you don’t know the signs of plant problems, you’ll be at a real disadvantage," Barden said. "Besides, even experienced gardeners look at late-season sale items as a gamble that might pay off. If they really need some plants, they buy earlier in the year."

‘Hardy’ Plants Can Freeze, Too

MANHATTAN, Kan. – A plant tag that says "hardy" doesn’t mean much in Kansas. Nationwide, the definition for "hardy" simply promises that a perennial, shrub or tree will survive at 32 F, freezing temperature. In Kansas, however, each year’s air temperature range can easily span from 105 degrees in summer to 20 degrees below zero in winter.

That’s why K-State Research and Extension horticulturists recommend that plant buyers:

a. Only consider items with tags that describe the plant’s growing area in terms of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) hardiness zone. Roughly speaking, one-half of Kansas is in zone 5 (north and west) and one-half is zone 6 (south and central). Zone 6 gardens can grow plants with a zone 5 hardiness rating. The reverse usually results in a frozen investment.

b. Talk to experienced gardeners, county Extension agents, nursery personnel and the like. Find out which plant varieties do well in the area. Then shop for those varieties by scientific or cultivar name. (Common names can mislead. Several varieties may carry the same one, even though they vary in hardiness, size, etc.)

c. When in doubt, buy from nurseries and garden centers (not chain stores or catalogs), particularly if they are selling stock they have grown under local conditions.

Easiest Landscape Chore? Feeding Trees!

MANHATTAN, Kan. – If just thinking about this year’s lawn and garden chores makes you tired, take heart! Fertilizing landscape trees in Kansas is a near-effortless "no-brainer."

"Trees basically need the same amount and kind of fertilizer you apply on your lawn," said Charles Barden, Kansas State University forester. "So, if a tree is growing in the lawn, simply continue your lawn fertilizing up to within a few feet of the tree’s trunk. That won’t waste any fertilizer right next to the tree, where it has very few feeder roots. But it will feed the tree’s entire root zone, which extends out in as wide a circle as the tree’s canopy of branches."

Barden warned that applying too much tree fertilizer can create problems: (1) twiggy growth, (2) huge leaves that don’t do well in summer’s heat and winds, (3) extra soil salts that can worsen drought conditions.

"If you’ve got alkaline soils naturally – which is common in much of western Kansas – you may want to buy a lawn fertilizer that says it’s formulated for the Midwest or is acid-forming," Barden said. "It will contain iron or sulfur, so also may have four numbers on the bag – such as 20-10-10-4.

"No matter what you apply, though, remember most lawn fertilizers won’t work until watered in."

To Mulch or Not to Mulch Trees

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Mulching trees is much like taking vitamins. Done in the right amount, it can protect health and support growth. Done to excess, it can be fatal – especially for the young.

"If I had to pick one reason for mulching trees, I’d have to say it’s because a ring of mulch eliminates any need to mow or weed whip right next to the tree trunk," said Charles Barden, forester at Kansas State University. "Combined with deer antler rubbing, those are the common reasons Kansas saplings suffer trunk damage.

"At best, trunk damage limits tree growth. At worst, it can stunt or even kill a tree."

Organic mulches also help conserve soil moisture, even out soil temperatures, and eliminate weed competition. The organics include shredded/chipped bark, dried lawn clippings, peat moss and compost.

"With a medium-coarse material such as cypress bark, a mulch layer needs to be about 4 inches thick, to accomplish all these tasks. Fine-textured materials require about half that depth. Big bark chips need to be a little deeper," Barden said. "With any mulch, however, more is not necessarily better. A young sapling with a 12-inch pile of mulch around its trunk has literally been buried alive."

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Kathleen Ward, Communications Specialist
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News