Why dont I dig a huge hole (several times the depth and width) of my new trees root-ball?
A. Old-school thinking on this topic was that trees needed a good start in life and should be planted in perfect soil. A hole was often several times the width and depth of the root-ball. This theory sounds good and could even work if you dug a hole big enough to contain the trees root system when its full grown. Unfortunately this isnt practical for most situations. Several studies have shown that trees planted in perfect soil run into difficulty when their roots grow past the perfect soil and reach the imperfect soil. If the soil they come into contact with contains a fair amount of clay (as do nearly all of the soils in our area) then the roots will tend to look for an easier place to expand to. Roots will either turn back and expand into the soil you provided them or they may start to circle around the current root area (girdling) looking for an easier way into the less than perfect soil. When this happens the tree will be unable to find new sources of moisture and nutrient and it
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