Hello,
After much research, I have decided to plant a blue moon wisteria against my 100+ year old brick garage, former horse stable. My question is, how far away from the brick wall do I plant the root ball? It is a tiny plant now, only about 18-24" now, but wanted to make sure I planted it in a way that it doesn't cause the foundation to fail. Any info would be appreciated! (Planning on training it at the corner and over the windows and doors.)
I know you will love this climbing plant and should do for years to come.
There are Hundreds of old homes and estates here in UK where Wisteria had draped the walls almost as many years as the age of the property and can assure you, there is absolutely NO problems with foundations from roots etc. These plants do best on either a South OR West facing wall as the tender flowering buds die off if they get frost / freeze or damaged by cold winter winds.
What you do have to worry / get right, is the structure /framework etc needed to withstand the heavy top growth these plants have as they mature. The best time to plant a new Wisteria is either Summers end (soil still warmish) OR April ( soil warming up)
Wisteria plants do NOT self cling to the walls, are extremely heavy plants once the top growth gets going therefore you need to prepare for that and have to tie the long lengths of new shoots along the framework. This does not happen the first couple of years BUT, if you don't do it at the beginning, it's difficult to work wires or wood around masses of greenery.
To prep the soil, and you need to do that at the planting stage, add heaps of humus as you can get your hands on, HORSE manure is best, well rotted only, there should be no bad smell, when you rub a handful between your finger and thumb, it should be dark brown and crumble like good quality store bought compost texture and odourless other than smell like soil. This manure / humus allows air into the soil, helps the soil retain moisture and gives a nice open structure for the roots to spread out as the plant grows larger.
The Wisteria will be growing in the same soil for many years, so get it right from the start, you can top dress every couple of years with more rotted manure to feed the soil.
Plant your Wisteria about a foot and half, 1 !/2 feet out from the wall (soil right beside a wall gets very dry because the wall acts like a radiator, the rain cant reach against the wall and other than hardened weeds, most plants cant cope being against the foundations of the wall) when you place the plant into the soil, bury to the same depth as it was in the pot (there should be a visible mark on the trunk where the soil was) you must tilt the plant backwards towards the wall and place the garden cane pointing upwards towards the wall.
At the top of the plant is where you should run strong wire (fencing wire on a role is required OR thick wood (wood rots) space the stretched wire a foot apart and maybe make these wire stretcher supports all the way up the wall so you dont have to get ladders, wire cutters and wire hoop nails that are used for hammering into stone / brick structures.
Wisteria needs watering regularly, keep soil around the root area weed free at all tines and learn how to prune your plant from the start as it is very difficult to hack back an overgrown Wisteria because by then, your hanging off a ladder and trying to hold onto the branches requiring cutting back so more flowering stems can get sun / light.
A couple of years AFTER planting, start the pruning regime, time has allowed the plant to settle into it's new environment and set out some new growth, you should also have started to tie in (with SOFT Horticultural string) any long WHIPS along the wires, you should see some of these long whips curling around the wire which is what you want.
to prune FEB, look for the previous years growth, cut just above about 5 new buds on the branch,
When the plant is more mature, you would begin a second pruning the same way but in JULY so that's a second pruning when your plant is large and more mature.
Every year or second year, top dress the root area with manure / humus and keep weed free.
hand fork over the soil to break up the top inch or so as this keeps a hard crust forming on the soil this allowing water to get down to the roots.
NOT knowing how much rain fall you get in summer, it may be a good idea at planting stage to insert a couple of empty clear plastic drinks cartons / bottles into the soil close to the root area, remove the cap, cut off the bottom and place the container into the planting area leaving an inch above the soil level, when you water the roots area, fill the container up a couple of times and this ensures water gets to the root instead of running off the top soil. you can also add a liquid feed by watering into the containers, BUT only use the dosage recommended by the maker of the feed, too much feed is as bad as no feed, excess feed can burn the roots.
Well hope this helps you out and you get in time, many years of pleasure from the Wisteria, just make sure as the years pass, you keep it in check as some types of these plants have a habit of running wild IF not kept in check by pruning.
Kindest Regards.
WeeNel.
Wow. Thank you so much. That was so helpful.
