Tree Nursery Online: What Tennessee Buyers Need to Know Before Ordering
If you are ordering from an online tree nursery and want to plant the tree in one of the many small cities in the state‚ from Memphis to the west of the state to the Tri-Cities to the east‚ your number one issue will be planting the tree in Tennessee growing zones and before it breaks dormancy․ Much of Tennessee is in USDA zones 6b through 7b‚ with a pocket of zone 8a around Memphis․
Why the Zone: What the Catalog Photo Missed
Many of the national tree vendors who list what trees are available to mail order to MN and GA list the zone restrictions in fine print (unless you are trying to order a crape myrtle that needs zone 7 heat and planting it in the mountains around Bristol where the winter lows are regularly lower than that!)․ Middle and West Tennessee (Nashville‚ Memphis‚ Jackson): zone 7a-7b․ Easy in general‚ but at the top of the range in East Tennessee (Gatlinburg and Blount County‚ zone 6a during hard wintermaybe not a small difference․ A Southern magnolia flowers in February‚ but a Southern magnolia next to it is skeletonized by a freeze․
If you're buying a tree over the Internet‚ check the cold hardiness of the tree being sold and that of your county․ The South is not good enough․ Other species that have a wide range in the state include eastern redbud‚ river birch‚ white oak (Quercus alba)‚ crepe myrtle‚ and various species and cultivars of Japanese maple‚ which tend to do better in the western half of the state․
Bare Root vs․ Container: What Actually Ships Well
Most online nurseries ship trees either bare root or container grown․ Bare root trees are dug from the ground when dormant‚ shipped without soil in a moist package․ They would be lighter and easier to transport‚ and as they would have no sides they would be more successful at growing into the medium they would be growing in‚ but they would only be successful over a relatively short shipping period․ In Tennessee‚ order your trees for replanting between late November and early March‚ before leaf buds break․ If your trees are not ordered until late spring‚ they will either be leafed out (and thus stressed) or it will be too late for bare root․
Trees planted in a container can be shipped at any time of year; but the tree must be left in the container‚ as the roots are still contained in the ball and soil․ Container trees are also considerably more expensive․ Container-grown trees may be pot bound‚ if kept too long in the container after purchase․ Container-grown trees are also planted in the fall season‚ as they do not need to be planted until the trees have gone dormant‚ only that their roots are established by the time winter arrives․
Plus‚ TN Nursery ships container grown plants so now you aren't limited to that short bare root planting season․ You can plant a river birch or a redbud in the month of October‚ root it in for six to eight weeks before frost‚ and not worry about your bare root tree spending a week in the shipping line․
Best planting dates for Tennessee crops
For most species‚ the period of late Sept․ to mid Nov․ is best because the soil temperature stays warmer longer than the air temperature gets colder․ A tree planted in October will root all winter with no leaf surface to support and no time to refill as the soil thaws․ When the temperature rises to 95 degrees in July‚ the hole the tree grew into months ago has now become too small․
You could plant in the spring (if you were in early April) but you would spend the first season babying a stressed tree through the 90-degree afternoons of Tennessee's sweltering summer heat and humidity․
What To Expect When The Tree Arrives
Most sites do not tell you that your tree looks nothing like the stock catalog photo and that even the low leaves will be yellowed from shipping․ If it is a little dry (for an hour or more if bare root) you should soak the root-ball in a bucket of water before laying it down on the padding․ Make the hole no deeper than the rootball and twice as wide․ Trees planted too deeply will often die within the first year․ The problem is even worse with trees planted in poor‚ heavy clay‚ less-drained soil like in Nashville and the Cumberland Plateau․
Clay Soil: Middle Tennessee has clay soil‚ which absorbs water slowly and only needs slight amendment․ Don't create a "bathtub" with the slick (sidewalls of gluey clay soil) to hold all that water at the root zone․ Scoring the sides of the hole with a shovel may help․ The alluvial soils along the Mississippi river in West Tennessee are sandier and more well-drained‚ so more watering may be needed in the first year․
What your first-year care should be
The first year the tree should be deeply watered weekly (10 to 15 gallons (38 to 57 L))‚ as daily watering only penetrates the top soil․ Two or three inches (no more) of mulch can be used‚ but be careful not to touch the bark‚ else it may rot and be gnawed by rodents․ This is a mistake everybody sees with trees shipped from big box retailers where nobody explains how to mulch properly․
Stake only when the site is windy and exposed; a tree may have no taper after more than one growing season of staking․ Do you not know how the tree is all the time in one place and it will never get used to the wind?
Use Plants for Tennessee's Environment
Leyland cypress and Green Giant arborvitae are better choices for high‚ fast-growing hedges and screening by gardeners in their humid Tennessee native range than the evergreen western at-risk evergreens of their native range․
