Is a snapped root a sure path to a short life?

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estreya Ridgefield, WA Jul 20, 2007

The weather's been IDEAL for planting. Cool, overcast and/or rainy, and it's going to be that way for the next several days. So plant i did! But i snapped a root. A fairly major root on a small tree - thinner than a pinky finger but not by too terribly much.

Have my carelessness doomed this little tree? Is there anything i can do?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jul 20, 2007

I don't think it's necessarily doomed, unfortunately it does make your job harder, and planting in the summer is a risky proposition anyway. Just because the weather was ideal for planting for a couple of days doesn't mean it's going to stay that way for long enough to really make a difference, plants need more than a few days to get established so I think you probably would have been better off waiting until fall.

If this tree is in a spot where it'll get full sun once the clouds go away, I would definitely rig up some sort of shade for it, that would be a good idea even if you hadn't damaged the roots when you were planting it, but with that extra damage I think it'll be critical to not let hot sun beat down on the plant for several months. Watering is going to be the other critical thing--if you have sandy soil then during warm sunny weather you're going to have to water a lot, I think if this is what your soil is it would be hard to overwater the plant, and you'll have to be really, really vigilant to make sure the soil doesn't dry out too much in between waterings (may even need to water more than once a day if the weather gets hot). On the other hand, if you have clay soil you'll have to be careful that it gets enough water but not too much. Don't water just because you see the plant wilting, what happens is that small root systems can't always take up water from the soil fast enough to keep the plant from wilting. There might be plenty of water in the soil, but the roots just don't have enough capacity yet to take it up quickly enough to keep the leaves from wilting in the heat. If this is what's going on and you water again, you'll end up overwatering and the roots will rot. So before you water again, make sure you stick your finger an inch or two down in the soil, if it still feels wet then don't water.

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estreya Ridgefield, WA Jul 20, 2007

Excellent. Thank you Ecrane3!

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